Chuck vs The Ben Franklin Parkway
by Whiskeyflips
Summary: Team B visits Philadelphia for the Fourth of July
1. A Knight, an Angel, and Spies

**Chuck vs The Benjamin Franklin Parkway**

**Chapter 1**

**A Knight, An Angel, and Spies**

_**A/N: **__To the readers who have favorited me: Don't worry, I'm still working on my other big stories, and they both should have updates very soon. This is just a fun, romantic little holiday story, 3 or 4 chapters at most. For this 4__th__ of July I decided to bring Team B to my hometown of Philadelphia for the fireworks. _

_Enjoy! And don't forget to review!_

**Philadelphia, Pennsylvania**

**30****th**** Street Station**

His name was Carmichael. It was his first assignment and he'd been on it for six months. His mission was to protect the young lady who now quivered in fear as she beheld the intimidating apparition in front of her.

The presumed monster was gigantic and had wings. It stood almost forty feet tall and dominated the very large room it was in. Its dark color gave it a sinister air as the creature hoisted up its lifeless victim. Clara was not at all interested in becoming its next.

Fortunately, it hadn't seemed to notice them, and that was the only thing that kept three year old Clara Woodcomb from an outright panic as she beheld in fear what was easily the most terrifying thing she'd seen in her young life. She clutched her bodyguard/protector close to her, who never took his shoe button eyes off the threat, and who defended her as he always head with ready plastic shield and mighty Styrofoam and fabric sword.

In the just-over six months since Christmas, Sir Carmichael BarWood the Fuzzy Wuzzy had very quickly become Clara's favorite stuffed animal. Armored as a medieval knight, the twelve inch tall Sir Carmichael was a teddy bear to be reckoned with. A Christmas present from her Uncle Chuck and Aunt Sarah, Sir Carmichael had shiny sequins everywhere to depict a chain mail shirt, and a fabric battle helmet with the visor always up, the better for the teddy bear to lookout for threats. His shield and tunic bore the same coat of arms -a green, white and red pattern of flowers, seashells and a unicorn. He wore an empty scabbard about his waist, as his weapon was always unsheathed and at the ready.

Sir Carmichael was sworn to fealty and the protection of his Lady Clara. When scary thunderstorms racked the Chicago area, Sir Carmichael was there. When the next door neighbor's frightening doggie barked at her from across the fence, Sir Carmichael was there. And every time she slept or took a nap, Sir Carmichael steadfastly guarded her dreams, ordering all nightmares to stay away, all Under Bed Monsters to cease and desist, and the Closet Demon to behave himself for the night, lest they taste Bear Knight's broadsword.

Still, a the 40 food winged … thing that was here at Philadelphia's 30th Street Station could be an intimidating foe, even for someone under the protection of a bear as heroic as Sir Carmichael.

"Scawy" Clara whimpered, and hid her face by burying it in her daddy's hair. Devon Woodcomb, carrying Clara on his shoulders, took an appraising glance at the large statue, and … had to admit that his daughter kind of had a point. It was a war memorial of some kind, and consisted of an angel carrying the body of a fallen solider. Both figures were larger than life, and the angel's mighty wings pointed straight up. The sculpture was bronze, and had a heavy dark hue, so that it was dignified … but also brutally powerful, and not gently welcoming.

"Don't worry, sweetie, that's an angel, and he's a good guy, not a bad guy" reassured Clara's mother, Ellie Woodcomb. "But we don't have to hang out near him if you don't want too."

"Taxis are"… Devon tried to navigate. "Where are they?"

"Um, actually – out that door" spoke up the fourth member of the … fivesome. Alex McHugh had her smart phone at the ready, and sure enough, the trip to the taxi stand took the little party across the cavernous concourse of the train station and out the opposite side.

Cheerily, the fifth and final voice piped up. Morgan Grimes had his own smart phone out and open. "Actually, the scary statute is a good Stop Number Two on our Seeing Hollywood Stuff By Accident While We're In Philadelphia Tour. And it's actually a double header. It's called the Pennsylvania Rail Road WWII Memorial, and it's for the Rail Road Workers who died in World War Two. Now here's the Hollywood Stuff – the statue was seen in the movie _Witness_, and the statue was sculpted by Walker Hancock … who was …." Morgan paused as he swiped on his phone "… ha! Get this, one of the _Monuments Men_! One of the guys they just made that movie about! So it was in a movie, and the guy that made it was one of the guys they made another movie about!"

"That's great, Morgan." Ellie said politely, but disinterestedly. Against her better judgment however, she asked "Wait you said Stop Number Two. What was Number One?"

"The … uhhh, bathroom. It's where Danny Glover killed that guy in _Witness_." Morgan admitted.

Alex had to grin at her long term boyfriend's relishing the role of playing tour guide on their friend's trip to Philadelphia. Morgan might not be an expert at fine art, but the guy did like movies, and could become quite knowledgeable of anything that intersected the classics.

"Morgan Grimes, tell me right now that you did not take us on the train from the airport just so that you could see the bathroom at the train station. We could have gotten a taxi from the airport! We didn't have to come here!" Ellie growled.

It was Devon that sprang to the bearded one's defense. "No, Babe It's cool. We're much closer to the hotel now, and according to mom, in Philly they have this road called the Schuylkill Expressway that makes the 405 look tame and well planned. We'd have had to take that from the airport and we didn't want to take a taxi for all of that. Now we're just across the river from the Ben Franklin Parkway and our hotel room."

Ellie switched glances. First she shot one to her husband, one which informed him that he'd better be right about this. The second one she sent to Morgan, as if their fuzzy tour guide had received a stay of execution of some sort. Both men had a history of worshiping Eleanor Fay Bartowski's eyes to the point where they got their respective messages, loud and clear.

Devon's parents, Honey and Woodrow had just retired, and Woodrow had picked up a new hobby – real estate. Specifically, house flipping … which was a hobby that was a lot safer for people who had a lot of money, like the family Woodcomb – then it would be for most amateurs. Predictably enough their first forays into the field were awesome successes. Woody and Honey flipped a few run down houses near the University of Pennsylvania, and were now leasing most of them to students … with the exception of one property that the University was now interested in buying outright. The University had already excellent relations with the Woodcombs, as it was where Honey had received her M.D. and where Woody and Honey and met on fellowship long ago.

Any other reasons why the Woodcombs were in love with Philadelphia were mysteries to Ellie. About the city, so far she knew the summers were punishingly hot – without the cooling sea breezes that could be found in Southern California, or the Lake Michigan breezes to be found in Chicago. The airport was far from the city, and like every east coast city, the streets were ridiculously narrow, since they'd been designed three hundred years ago by people who had been taking horses, not cars into account. Even from the train, she could see streets labeled as "streets" that in Los Angeles, would have been known by their proper name – "alleys". It was an historical city … which was interesting if you liked history, and not if not.

Still, to celebrate their successes, Honey and Woody invited Ellie, Devon Clara and Chuck and Sarah to their apartment in Philly's Rittenhouse Square – one of the several upper scale residences and time-shares that two retired doctors could afford throughout the country. Ellie, Devon, Chuck and Sarah, all wealthy enough in their own right, accepted the invitation to the party, but the women flatly refused to stay with elder Woodcombs overnight … although Ellie was looking forward to testing the waters to see if they'd be interested in babysitting Clara for a night or two.

"So, taxies. This way." Alex pointed to the west colonnade of the building. The … fivesome ….proceeded out past the train information desk, and it's clacking train status updates.

Morgan and Alex, while not invited to the party, did hear about the trip from Chuck and Sarah, and Morgan, ever the movie buff invited himself and his girlfriend along to check out the various places in various Philadelphia based movies, even going as far as to bring The_ Sixth Sense_, _Rocky I,II,III,IV_, and _Rocky Balboa_,('to hell with _Rocky V'_, Morgan always said) _Witness_, and _National Treasure_ on flight from Chicago to Philly. Morgan and Alex even decided to make a week of it and visited Chicago right before the trip.

Two taxis were quickly procured, one for Ellie, Devon, Clara and Carmichael, the other for Alex and Morgan.

"Four Seasons Hotel" Alex told the driver. "Huh. Never thought I'd say _that_ to cab driver."" She beamed.

"Yeah," Morgan said innocently "Sure was nice of Chuck and Sarah to put us up for the weekend here. On Fourth of July weekend no less! And …" Morgan came in for a kiss "They got us a slightly cheaper room on a lower floor, which means we have a bit of privacy from the Woodcombs and the Bartowskis"

In his right pants pocket his cell phone vibrated.

"Morgan …" Alex cooed seductively "Are Chuck and Sarah being this nice to us for no reason at all, or is there something you want to tell me?"

"Chuck and Sarah are being nice to us for no reason at all, and the only thing that I want to tell you is that I love you" Morgan lied.

Alex regarded his face unconvinced as the taxi pulled out of the taxi stand. Her eyes were inquisitive, but they were also happy and content.

Morgan finally checked his cell phone, and looked at the coded text message. For this special weekend, he'd finagled with the contacts list on his iPhone, so that the incoming message came from "RedShirtCB"

**RedShirtCB: Away Team has landed on Ceti Alpha Five. (Very cute, it's on 5****th**** street). Standing by to seek out Botany Bay and acquire Ceti Eel. Must break away from hostile escort first.**

Morgan grinned at the note from his oldest friend. If all went well, soon the Ceti Eel would be in his possession. Success was practically guaranteed. He had two of the best ex-spies in the business on the job, if only they could shake another really good spy.

"Who's that?" Alex asked.

"Oh nothing," Morgan lied once more. "The Dodgers are looking to make a trade with the Angels."

"Morgan … you don't follow baseball."

"I do now" he lied once more.


	2. Bear Hats and Bikinis

**Chapter 2**

**Bear Hats and Bikinis**

**A/N:** _In a show that wasn't bashful about showing off the looks of its two major female stars, (or it's male stars, for that matter) Alex, played by the very attractive Mekenna Melvin rarely got to be the center of guys attention. I decided to correct that oversight. You're welcome, Alex fans. _

_Sarah's memory loss at the end of Season 5 was an uncomfortable part of canon and since I usually try not to violate canon I respect it as such… BUT I don't want it to be a major part of this particular story. So for my purposes it was a problem that was relatively quickly solved._

_And yes, a few of the people who work for the National Park Service, both ladies and gents, are very good looking in their outfits. And they're categorically very smart and knowledgeable about their subject matter. Most are also born showmen/women who know how to put on an interesting lecture. A lot of fic writers portray Sarah as the slightly-to-insanely jealous type. I do too. It's practically canon that-even when monogamous with Chuck- she's sensitive to whether or not his eyes wander even slightly (vs. The Suitcase, vs Bo) If it's fair to depict her as jealous, I'd think that an attractive chatterbox NPS worker would be threat direction she'd surely notice._

* * *

**Chapter 2**

**Bear Hats and Bikinis**

**Philadelphia, Pennsylvania**

**Independence Hall **

**5****th**** and Chestnut Streets**

**Away Team has landed on Ceti Alpha Five. (Very cute, it's on 5****th**** street). Standing by to seek out Botany Bay and acquire Ceti Eel. Must break away from hostile escort first.**

Chuck had shown Sarah his text message to Morgan before sending it. Sarah bit her bottom lip in an exaggerated look of concern at the use of the phrase "hostile escort".

It was hard to outflank or outsmart an opponent who knew your every move, and who could predict your actions and reactions. Between the lessons taught by Jill Roberts, Daniel Shaw, Keiran Ryker, Clyde Decker and others, Chuck and Sarah Bartowski knew that there could be no more formidable antagonist then one who was familiar with you, and so it could be awfully difficult to give the slip to someone like John Casey.

Of course, the five years of working together and the seven years of friendship meant that Chuck and Sarah knew their opponent pretty well too.

The … threesome … had just begun the National Park guided tour of Independence Hall. Of the three of them, Casey was the closest one to being a history buff … not one in the classic sense, but always ready willing and able to venerate places in America where great deeds were done, and most surely this qualified. Sarah and Chuck had been mildly interested, but quickly got even more into the spirit of things, once the tour guide ushered them into the congressional chamber and they found themselves in the room where the Declaration of Independence and US Constitution were signed. The green table linens and high backed wood chairs were immediately recognizable from a dozen paintings and TV shows. The entire tour group seemed to feel the same sense of historical recognition, and allowed a hush to fall over them as they were in the room.

Sarah was amazed by the fact that every item in the room from the table linen to the chairs to the walking staffs to the candles and quill pens - everything except the obvious modern things like the Exit signs and the fire extinguishers- were authentic to the time period of 1776, if not to the actual owner.

There were two tour guides, one a middle aged heavyset dark-skinned fellow, and the other young, short twenty something blond haired woman – probably in training under the eye of the senior fellow. She delighted in quizzing the people as to which state of the union they had come from, and if the answer was one of the original thirteen colonies, pointing out which table that particular delegation had sat at. She beamed with pride in pointing out the Pennsylvania table, and proudly donned a latex glove and held up a pair of Benjamin Franklin's bifocals.

Sarah watched as her husband was enthralled by this. "Those are _really_ Ben Franklin's glasses?" Chuck gaped. He would have never described himself as a history buff, but he did have an imaginative, creative engineer's mind and heart, and was quickly impressed by one of the great inventors and tinkerers of all time, and doubly so to be in the same room where Franklin did a lot of his work.

The NPS woman – 'Sharon' her nametag had said- had thrilled at Chuck's attention. "We _do_ know that these glasses were owned by Ben Franklin. We don't know if he had them before, during or after the signing of the Declaration of Independence … or the Constitution. Or if he brought them into this chamber. He could have been wearing them as he signed the Declaration. Or not. Who knows, he could left them at home that day! But we do know that they were his property."

"Wow." Chuck stared. "And we know that's where he sat?" he nodded his head to his chair.

"Oh yes. That much we do know. That's not even a question." Spoke up the senior interpreter.

"Dr. Franklin suffered from gout, so…" Sharon explained further as she circled to the side of the Pennsylvania table "…he always took a seat on the far end of the Pennsylvania delegation so he could stretch out his achy foot. Sometimes he'd be here in his chair, and at others he'd catnap in the corner right over there" she said as she pointed. "The other two chairs were used by his fellow Pennsylvanians John Dickenson and James Wilson."

"Wow." Chuck said again, staring at the chair.

"That's impressive" Casey allowed with a nod.

Sarah noticed Sharon blushing at Chuck's attention, and giving him an appraising glance as Chuck stared into the corner of the room that had not-so-recently been occupied by Ben Franklin. Sarah also noticed that- as usual- Chuck hadn't noticed when another woman was checking him out. Instead, Chuck's attention was focused on Ben Franklin's chair, and he was no doubt imagining the wizened old founding father reclining at his place. Sarah suppressed a chuckle. From the day they had met seven years ago – and long before they had become a couple, Chuck had been sensitive to the stares that Sarah collected from men whenever she walked into a room. Now, exclusive for four years, and happily married for three, Chuck had simply accepted it as fact of life that his gorgeous wife lit up the area she was in, and that men simply admired her. Paradoxically, once they had become a couple, Chuck had quickly gotten over petty jealousy, as he was constantly reassured that Sarah only truly had eyes for him.

The inverse was _close_ to being true … but not yet there... and Sarah was unsure it ever would be. Oh Sarah never truly feared Chuck leaving a party with another woman, it wasn't that. And Chuck never truly gave her a reason to fear. It's just that while both halves of this loving couple accepted as fact that Sarah (Walker) Bartowski was one of the most lovely women to grace the vision of any man who met her … only the female half of the couple believed that Chuck was just as attractive to the women he crossed paths with. His years of spy training had –in a very brief time-done wonders with his wardrobe choices, muscle tone and his hair styling… and yet Chuck still seemed to think of himself physically as a Buy More Nerd Herder who had been lucky enough to charm a knockout like Sarah, and not as an absolutely gorgeous guy in his own right.

Sarah's chuckle caught as a stray memory caught up to her. Something like this had happened before… but she couldn't tell when... at least not yet.

It'd been two and a half years since her memory had been temporarily damaged. Mercifully, thankfully the memories began trickling back to her right away, slowly at first, and then more and more frequently. Less than a month after Nicholas Quinn's attack, a tawdry … but ultimately _practical_ … theory by her friend Carina had –when put into practice- all but dynamited a logjam full of memories… and there was no stopping that flood of recalls once it started. Sarah had swiftly fallen in love with her Chuck again, and most of the damages done in that horrible month of January 2012 were repaired. Like a highway that had been nearly destroyed by an air attack, Sarah's memory was now restored and repaired enough to carry heavy traffic, with just a few potholes and unpaved parts to make life uncomfortable every now and then.

Like now, for instance.

The tour of Independence Hall over, Chuck, Sarah and Casey headed out the south entrance – or back door- of the historical building. Chuck was delighted.

"I knew that was going to be pretty cool… but I didn't know how much fun I'd have. That was awesome!"

Casey agreed with an unusual amount of enthusiasm. "Yeah, historical places will do that to you. You can fool yourself into believing that you were right there with those guys. Your mind starts playing games with you … only it's the good kind. There's a good reason why the Park Service looks after places like this. They do good work."

"I'll say…" Chuck agreed, and then jerked his attention to Sarah, who had just squeezed his hand.

"Honey" Sarah said, somewhat excitedly, as she came from around him and turned to face him. "I think that tour guide was kind of checking you out" The smile on Sarah's face however informed both Chuck and Casey that she was anything but jealous and angry.

"Who, Lennie the heavy guy? " Chuck teased. "Well I don't think so … I mean it was his job to answer my question, wasn't it?" Chuck answered.

Sarah smiled. Chuck of course was again clueless… but she had something more important to do then fight with him about that. Heedless of the fact that public displays of affection made Casey uncomfortable, she stepped right in front of Chuck and clasped both of his hands in hers. "Sweetie … that wasn't the first time I've been jealous of a woman in one of those Smokey Bear hats, was it?"

"Oh, God. Do I even want to know?" Casey groaned.

But Chuck's face beamed as if he had had a light bulb moment. "Sarah! You remember that?" The vast majority of Chuck's memories with Sarah were happy ones from 2007 through 2012, with some tragedy sprinkled in, and so whenever Sarah remembered something it was usually a good thing.

Sarah simply nodded, with a big smile on her face.

"Yeah! It was our honeymoon" … Chuck began.

"arrrggggh!" Casey interrupted.

"Oh, Calm down. I'm not going to over share!" Chuck snapped. "It was our honeymoon, we were in Hawaii. And on day three or four we decided to get out of the hotel…"

Sarah glanced down at the ground and blushed a little at this point

"Bartowski … you … _just_ … … _promised_!" Casey threatened.

"… … and we visited the Hawaii Volcanoes! They have a National Park there too. And yeah, our tour guide there was a woman, and yeah she was pretty cute."

"Oooohhhhh I think I described her as something more than 'cute'… something along the lines of 'Hawaiian Surfer Goddess'?" Like a fast moving game of Tetris the gaps filled in for this particular memory.

Kamele the Tour Guide at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park had indeed been lovely, and athletic looking. She had been as tall as Sarah, and had worn her National Park uniform very well indeed. And she could talk on and on about volcanoes, something that gave Sarah's newlywed husband, an … Sarah used the word _excuse_ … to ask her everything he wanted to know about subsurface magma dynamics. Of course Chuck, nerd that he was, would have been interested in the subject matter anyway, and never asked an overly friendly or personal question, but Sarah wondered how rapt his attention would have been had the tour guide been an overweight balding male. Then Kamele had graciously taken a picture of the happy couple by the coast line with a lava tube in the background-during the taking of which Sarah had made sure that both hers and Chuck's wedding rings were in full view. And just before they had left the park, she slipped two brochures to Sarah and Chuck, quietly letting them know about a surfing competition she was competing in that weekend, and welcoming them if they were still going to be on the island by then.

Chuck had politely told her they'd consider it. Sarah had smiled silently –but had already considered it and rejected it. Kamele had already smiled for far too long at her only-days-new husband, and had moved one of her own stray hairs off of her forehead in front of Chuck way too many times for her to become friends with Sarah.

When leaving the park, Sarah had decided it was the perfect time to tease Chuck about his flirting with other women – the first time she had done so as his wife, so it was a milestone for them. Chuck, naturally – and accurately- protested innocence. Verbally, between the two it was all in good fun. Mentally, for Sarah it was _mostly_ in good fun … internally it was also the beginning of a new category into which she placed attractive flirty women: 'Be Polite to but Never Ever Leave Alone with Chuck'. Kamele was the first resident… and then Sarah retroactively bumped Carina and Zondra there too, not so much to be safe … but of a way to exercise her new wifely right to mark her territory.

It was a cute intimate moment that the couple often joked about … and Chuck had missed those jokes. Now in the large garden that made up Independence Hall's "backyard", Chuck and Sarah shared a celebratory kiss at the recapturing of yet one more lost memory.

Typically nauseated by the overly affectionate couple, Casey granted a pass this one time, as he had loathed the conditions of Sarah's memory loss as well. "Nice work, Sarah" he allowed. "So. Lunch at City Tavern?" he suggested.

That they couldn't do- at least not yet. Chuck and Sarah still had the challenge of breaking away from Casey and making their way to the jewelry store without arousing his suspicions. That was when Sarah came up with her brilliant plan –one so obvious that she was amazed that neither she nor Chuck had come up with it before.

John Casey was as strong an ally as they could ask for. He had many strengths and few weaknesses. But those weaknesses he did have did make him predictable, and Sarah knew exactly how the two of them could slip away.

"Honey," she purred sappily to Chuck, cuddling into the crook in his arm in an exaggerated display of affection "I was thinking of my costume for Comic-Con in a few weeks … I've already sent away for most of the parts…"

Not suspecting what she was up to, Chuck chirped. "Oh neat! I thought the white flight suit would have been hard to find."

"Oh, yeah. That. Yeah. No. I decided to change characters on you." Sarah smiled.

Now knowing for sure that something was up, Chuck stopped in his tracks. Casey, a few steps ahead of them stopped too, slightly annoyed.

Sarah brandished her smartphone, and swiped over a few pictures. "I decided to ditch the idea of Buck Rodgers and Wilma Deering ….. and… go ….more with a Buck Rodgers Gets Captured By Princess Ardala theme."

Observing the pictures, Chuck began to blush severely. The Princess Ardala outfit left even less to the imagination then her Slave Princess Leia costume had for Halloween seven years ago, or her belly dancing outfit had when she tried to charm him into eloping. "That horned helmet should be in next week … the capes should be in a little bit before. And I already have a white bikini that should work pretty well. What do you think about that?"

"I think … 'wow'". Chuck's blush continued. He never-even to this day- ever did have the gall to actually come out and ask Sarah to dress up in outfits that showed off her magnificent body. He couldn't even commit to telling her what his favorite bikini was on her. But Sarah was often audacious enough to blast through his modesty, and had very little compunction against showing off for Chuck. Chuck had to admit- he loved it … and he was pretty sure Sarah knew he did. Sarah's looks had reduced him to a stammering buffoon on the day they'd first met, and Chuck always secretly suspected that she enjoyed wielding that power over him.

Casey looked like he was in danger of dry heaving. He hadn't seen the pictures, but he had heard Sarah's description. "You two- do you have to go over this now? I'm hungry, and don't want you wrecking my appetite."

"Actually Casey, I'm being serious, believe it or not." Sarah responded.

"Huh?"

"Chuck, Honey… I was thinking that maybe we could pick-up something nice and shiny to … accentuate this costume. Maybe something pretty around my neck?" she said, seductively placing her fingers on her collarbone. Facing Chuck with her right side towards Casey, Sarah was in a perfect position to wink at Chuck with her left eye, which she did. _We're grossing Casey out! This is our break to go to the jewelry store!_

Normally when getting a coded message from Sarah, Chuck had to train himself to use his poker face. But his shy-and-overwhelmed-by-his-gorgeous-and-saucy-wife face was covering quite nicely this time. Casey wasn't suspecting a thing. "Yeah, Casey we're going to swing by the jewelry store. We'll catch up with you in about twenty or so."

"I'll be eating. Won't wait for you. But I'll get a booth" the hungry Casey declared.

"Okay cool!" Chuck declared, as Chuck and Sarah, hand in hand, made their escape to the south. Chuck brought out his phone and texted Morgan.

**Evaded hostile escort! On the way to the Botany Bay!**

Moving down 5th Street, Chuck squeezed Sarah's hand. He was so elated with his clever wife's use of Casey's weak stomach in the face of affection that he wasn't even disappointed at Sarah's presumable little fib about her character and costume choice. It was no matter. Sarah would rock the Wilma Deering flight suit. Besides, it was more appropriate anyway. Wilma was the heroine in the Buck Rodgers TV show, just as Sarah was his heroine in real life. "You're a genius! It shouldn't take too long to close out Morgan's account here. The manager's name is William, and he's expecting us anytime today."

"Well, it's going to take a little time Chuck… after all I do have a necklace to pick out after we're done. Not just any piece of will work with a horned helmet and a white bikini, you know." Sarah responded.

Again Chuck froze and blushed. "You … weren't kidding about Princess Ardala, were you?"

Sarah cupped her husband's head in her hands and gave him a deep, affectionate kiss. "What do _you_ think?"

"Are you … sure?" Chuck asked.

"Comic-Con's only a few weeks away at the end of July, Chuck. I've been doing my sit-ups. I'll be fine." Sarah purred. "And I'll be even more fine when we're done at the jewelry store. The only challenge on this costume is going to be how you're going to get it off me that night. I do sort of have high hopes of the bad girl getting laid that night." Enjoying her husband's blush, she turned on her heel and left him there on the sidewalk, leaving him to scramble a bit to catch up.

_No man in the world is as lucky as I am_. Chuck thought for the millionth time, as he caught up to his wife.

* * *

**Philadelphia Pennsylvania**

**The Four Seasons Hotel**

**One Logan Circle**

_I'm the luckiest dude in the world. _Devon Woodcomb thought for the millionth time. It's true that he'd been treated to the sight of Ellie in a bikini –and less- for more than ten years now, but the sight was something a man could only get used to. Never one he could take for granted. It was always wonderful, particularly when Ellie had gone shopping for something new.

The one she had on now was an excellent choice. It was royal blue and had wide-ish straps around the waist and shoulders—not unlike something those female volleyball players had during the Summer Olympics. It showed off her perfect form without fail, and yet was unmistakably secure, with none of the fragility of the stringy things that had so often defined her choices – and continued to define Sarah's choices. The requirement was simple – any bathing suit Ellie wore needed to not only appeal to Ellie's sense of vanity (which had never gone away… or even dropped significantly) but also needed to confidently survive a bout of aquatic roughhousing with a rambunctious and pool loving Clara Woodcomb. Ellie was positively lovely, and she was totally deserving of the _Hot Mama_ code name he'd assigned her back when they were playing at spycraft.

Something that Devon's med-school self wouldn't have easily predicted was that Ellie's attractiveness was maximized by walking along the pool deck with their adorably cute daughter, clad now in her one piece Sleeping Beauty toddler bather. Ellie hopped into the shallow end of the pool first, and held out her arms for Clara to come join her.

"Cold?" Clara asked cautiously.

"Sweetie pie it's fine!" Ellie said.

Clara sent a backwards glance to her daddy's pool deck chair where sure enough, Devon was watching attentively, while simultaneously making sure that Sir Carmichael kept a safe distance away from the pool… and that he was watching, Clara too. With such reassurance, Clara jumped in, her arm floaties flapping about as Ellie caught her at the waterline and began to drag her about.

"Boat boat boat!" Clara demanded.

"Sweetie I'm the slow boat. Daddy's the fast boat. And when Uncle Chuck and Aunt Sarah get here, that's speedboat time!"

"Unca Chuck! Unca Chuck!" Clara squealed.

"They'll be here soon, sweetie."

The pool at the Four Seasons was an indoor, but the skylight above meant that the possibility of getting some sun was still in the cards. Devon decided to recline and try to catch a few rays, before it was his shift to shepherd Clara about in the pool.

A few other people were populating the pool deck, and like always more than a few of the women were taking in the eye candy that was Devon, whilst Ellie collected a few admiring glances from the guys, even with a toddler in tow around the shallow end.

Before long, Morgan and Alex joined them, Morgan taking the deck chair two spaces down from Devon, and putting his cell phone on the table next to it. He showed no effort to take his shirt off or hop in the pool, although Alex was clearly making it a priority, staking out the chair between Devon and Morgan. "Is this Ellie?" she asked.

"Uh, no. Ellie's over here" Devon said, gesturing to the recliner on his right side. No sooner had Devon gotten the words out than Alex flopped on the chair, kicked off her flip flops. Then she speedily peeled off her t-shirt and shorts as if they were on fire, and stood before Morgan to receive his admiring attention.

Devon couldn't resist letting out a "whoa" at the sight. Alex McHugh had always had a girl-next-door air about her, and to be honest Devon hasn't ever considered her to be glamorously beautiful. Pretty, yes. Cute, of course, but not what he'd call a stunner, certainly not when Ellie and Sarah were in the room. The sight of Alex in her scarlet bikini however caused him to radically change his thinking. It was the color of a rose petal on a sunny day, as bright as a stoplight, and it plainly stated that Alex was in tip-top form. It was even possible, depending on tastes, she was the hottest woman in the pool deck. Devon grinned. In college Alex would be known as a 'stealth hottie', one who was actually amazingly beautiful, but rarely dressed to accentuate it. Morgan was lucky dude.

"Looking good Alex" Devon said appreciatively.

"Isn't she though?" Morgan beamed. He took a picture of her with his cellphone. "Glamor shot right there."

"You are NOT putting that on Facebook." Alex informed. "And thanks, Devon" she purred.

"Wouldn't think of it." Morgan declared. "Are you going to go diving?"

"Mmm-hmm" Alex said, twisting her head and spying the diving board at the far end of the pool. "Watch my towel?" She asked, making her way to the pools end.

"Sure." Morgan said, clutching his phone once more.

"Woah!" Ellie said, having finally noticed Alex when she walked past her position in the pool. Bringing Clara along to the pool's edge, she declared "I think someone's been taking workout tips from Sarah!"

"You got it." Alex beamed "She emailed me a bunch of things that she had do back when she was in training. It's intense, but it gets results. And it's what she puts Chuck through now, she said."

Ellie nodded appreciatively. "Well, fair is fair. Speaking of which, do you drag Morgan along with you when you exercise? If not you should. No reason you should go to the trouble of looking like that while he coasts."

The two women shared a grin before Alex continued making her way to the diving board. Then Ellie glanced at her husband and mouthed "wow" to him. Devon's wide eyes and nod meant that he too had been surprised.

Morgan had his camera phone ready to get an action shot of Alex jumping in. The phone made a vibrating sound, and Morgan's eyes lit up as he caught the message. Half to himself, he mumbled "_Botany Bay! Oh no! Should only be a few minutes more_" He softly said with a grin on his beaded face.

The camera function once more enabled, he snapped a perfect one of Alex in a diver's pose … and then did his best to get one in as she dove, the result unfortunately being a fair skinned blur streaked with red as it dove into the pool.

"Not a winner." Morgan groused, and flopped back on the chair as Alex began to do a lap or two.

On the opposite end of the pool, Devon could see that some of the gents who had once been admiring Ellie were now tracking Alex. Morgan could probably save himself a little bit of trouble if he hopped in the pool with her and claimed her, broadcasting to all and sundry that Alex had come to and would be leaving the dance tonight with him. It wasn't the most enlightened or forward thinking thought that a 21st century male could have –the notion that Alex or Ellie needed their man to 'claim' them in order to dodge other admiring men… and yet the idea _was_ practical as a time saver. His bearded pal, however showed no inclination to join his gorgeous girlfriend in the pool, and was rather concentrating on his phone.

"Dude" Devon began helpfully. "Your gal is rocking the bikini, and is in the swimming pool of one of the most expensive hotels in Philadelphia. These other guys are used to talking smooth to pretty girls, and used to letting their money do the talking –I'd get in there if I were you, otherwise people might think she's single."

"Yeah, I'll be in there in a minute. Just waiting to see how Chuck and Sarah are doing." Morgan told a half-truth.

"Dude, they'll get here when they get here!"

"Devon" came the voice from the pool. Ellie had overhead, and was again at the edge with Clara. When Devon caught her eye she simply shook her head once sharply. "Don't worry Morgan. Clara and I will keep the guys off of Alex."

Devon, having had ten years' experience of reading Ellie's body language, knew that those eyes meant that she was not to be defied. Confused, but knowing not to protest, Devon simply piped down.

Morgan shared a grateful glance at Ellie, as Alex patrolled behind her starting her second lap. "Thanks" he mouthed to her. Ellie responded with a wink, and went back to performing water circles with Clara.

Morgan was grateful for Chuck's advice a week ago in concocting his little scheme- _Ellie_ could keep a secret and could be an exceptionally powerful ally in any scheme, conspiracy, plot or intrigue. Devon, on the other hand was completely useless at deception, and couldn't keep a secret or tell a little white lie if his life depended on it… almost literally. With a sigh, Morgan slumped on his chair, looking at the most recent message, which was by now getting stale.

**RedShirtSB: We're in Botany Bay.**

_Oh, Sarah._ Plainly she didn't quite get the_ Space Seed / Star Trek II_ reference, and was associating the place in Australia. But that was no concern. What was concerning was that the next update was overdue.

Hoping that an un-watched pot would boil faster, Morgan rested the phone on his chest as he took in the sight of three of the most wonderful ladies in the world gallivanting about the pool. Ellie was clapping for Clara's Supergirl arms as she kicked about, and Alex was pausing to praise the little girl.

The all-important phone chirped again.

**RedShirtCB: Ceti Eel secured! Away team preparing to beam out!**

Devon saw as Morgan sprang from his perch delighted. He quickly tapped something on his phone and then tossed it onto the chair between them, the one that Alex had briefly claimed. Then he sprinted over to the edge of the pool and called over to the troika of ladies "Chuck and Sarah are gonna be here soon!"

Clara took in the news with a delighted squeal, and slapped the pool's water, splish splashing both her mother and Alex. "Unca Chuck! Unca Chuck!"

Tossing off his own shirt, Morgan charged down to the diving board that Alex had recently used. "Gang way! I'm coming in!" as he jumped and executed an almost perfect cannonball into the pool.

"Awesome!" Devon cheered, and the Alex and Ellie clapped. Clara continued to splish splash, uninterested in Morgan's aquatic stunts.

Devon remained in his chair, conserving his strength. The jet lag had taken it out of him as surely as it had Ellie- though Clara with the boundless energy of a toddler was immune to it. Soon enough Ellie would need a break, and it'd be his turn to dance with Clara about the pool – although if he were lucky, Chuck would be all too eager to share the burden once he got here… of course if he were _un_-lucky, Chuck would be _getting_ lucky, and he and Sarah might make a bee line for the hotel room … and stay there ..., and bypass the pool completely.

He frowned at that idea. That could result in a disappointed Clara, and that could not stand. So to cut off the idea completely, he grabbed his smart phone, sauntered over to the pool deck and called out to Ellie and Clara. Pulling out his own smart phone, Devon decided to lay out a classic guilt trip trap. "Ladies, smile!" he said, getting ready to snap a picture. Ellie picked up Clara in her arms, and faced the camera. Alex hung back, not 100 % sure the picture was meant for her … and then squealed as Morgan came from behind her and hugged her.

"Excellent!" Devon beamed at the wonderful picture of the two most important ladies in his life. "Now Clara, how much are you looking forward to seeing Uncle Chuck?"

"Unca Chuck! Unca Chuck!" Clara squealed again.

"Well, I'll just tell him that he and Aunt Sarah better get here soon and …" he looked conspiratorially at Ellie. " … not get any bright ideas about staying in the hotel room with Aunt Sarah any longer then they have to!"

"oooooooh" Ellie said impressed. "Using your daughter to guilt trip your brother-in-law. That is ruthless … and I like that in a man" she added with a saucy wink.

"I'm bad to the bone, babe"

"Of course if Sarah decides to take it out on you, you're on your own." Ellie said.

Devon's face fell a little at that less-then-pleasant thought. It might not be 100% safe to get between a tigress and her amours. Still, he thought the danger was minimal. Going over to his chair once more, he typed in the text message and sent it to Chuck and Sarah, underlining how dearly a certain three year old wanted to swim with her very favorite aunt and uncle.

This accomplished, he put his own phone away and relaxed … for about fifteen seconds when another phone chirped. It was Morgan's phone that he had left on Alex's chair. "Morgan dude, your phone's talking." Devon called into the pool.

Morgan didn't hear.

Devon decided to put the phone in under Morgan's towel where it'd be safe. Grasping the phone, he peeked at the incoming message.

**RedShirtCB: Away Team attacked by a Romulan. Nobody hurt. Ceti Eel still secure. Speaking with Starfleet Security. Will Be Delayed.**

Entirely bewildered, Devon simply asked "Huh?"


	3. The Colonel, The General, The Thief, and

_**A/N**__: It's the way of the Chuck universe … if there's a possible proposal in the offing, Everything - to quite Victor Lazlo, is NOT going to be cool!_

_Okay, so this going on a little longer than I thought. I'm thinking probably 5 or 6 chapters now_

_Don't forget to review!_

* * *

**Chapter 3**

**The Colonel, The General, The Thief, and the Lover**

**Philadelphia, Pennsylvania**

**Washington Square **

**6****th**** and Walnut Streets**

Casey hasn't been kidding when he said he was hungry, but Chuck and Sarah's sudden urge to shop for bling provided for him a unique opportunity to detour an area of Philadelphia he'd always been curious about.

Like every city in existence, Philadelphia had grown up around a central core, and had then grown outwards from there. New York City had the Battery at the tip of Manhattan. Los Angeles had El Pueblo. Philly had a grid of streets stretching between the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers, made up of neatly ordered city blocks – an innovation at the time. Five of those blocks were set aside way back when as large public squares. On the map, they had a pattern that resembled a roll of "5" on a die. One public square was right smack dab in what was then the middle of the town, with the others to the northeast, southeast, northwest and southwest, all equidistant from the center square.

That center square had long since been paved over, and now was the foundation for Philadelphia's massive City Hall.

To the northwest of that was Logan Square –where Alex and Grimes were with the Woodcombs - and Rittenhouse Square was to the southwest, where Philadelphia kept a lot of their rich people. To the northeast was Franklin Square … which had a kid's playground, and was nice if you could ignore the fact that it was perpetually blockaded by traffic coming off of and going onto the Ben Franklin Bridge.

The final or Southeast Square was Washington Square, just south of Independence Hall, and the one Casey was truly interested in. It was really a lovely place, a small green oasis in the middle of a section of the city that was so historical it was hard to tell if it was upscale or not. But the other folks using the park seemed to enjoy. A couple of fellows were playing chess. A few teenage girls were selling flowers. An elderly couple was walking their dog, moving past a much younger couple who were holding each other on the bench, not a million miles away from how Chuck and Sarah would act together … or Morgan and Alex.

Washington Square got its name from the statue that was on the inside of the wall-like monolithic tomb that was along the western wall of the square. It was the tomb of the Unknown Revolutionary War Soldier, protected by a bronze likeness of that soldier's commander-in-chief, General George Washington. Casey arrived at the tomb, and paused in reverence.

Of all military leaders, Washington was Casey's very favorite- a stickler for discipline, one who tolerated no bellyaching, and yet one who knew how to inspire ordinary, unremarkable people to do extraordinary things. He was one who believed in the concepts of duty and honor … yet wasn't afraid to fight dirty, and embraced the benefits of clandestine operations. He was a man who made other men proud of themselves, and made them believe in themselves. He taught them that they could do amazing things—if they trained hard in preparation for difficult tasks. And lo, Washington turned an army of farmers and blacksmiths, shopkeepers and backwoodsmen into the first United States soldiers… men who mostly had no military experience, no discipline, and used to the comforts of civilian life who then had to be asked to stand up to British battalion troops, grenadiers , light infantrymen and dragoons, and ruthless Hessian goons-for-rent.

Never one to self-aggrandize, Casey wouldn't have dared to compare himself to the Father of the Country…. And yet he had often thought of Washington as a role model over the last seven years. Having to develop Chuck Bartowski as an asset required more than a few of Washington's skills. He and Walker had to take and raw civilian- a Nerd Herder at a Buy More- and indoctrinate him into the brutal, unforgiving world of espionage and violence. The thought brought a smile to Casey. Bartowski had needed discipline and training, even abuse and threats in order to get him to perform. Rarely –very rarely- did he need appeals for him to do his duty. Like Washington's men, Bartowski had days when he didn't inspire a whole lot confidence. But for the most part he had the stuff that was in his head and the stuff that was in his heart that allowed him to find his inner hero … just has Washington's soldiers had.

There were several inscriptions on the tomb. Casey's eye lingered on the most prominent one across the top.

**FREEDOM IS A LIGHT FOR WHICH MANY MEN HAVE DIED IN DARKNESS**

"Amen", Casey whispered practically to himself. Since joining the Corps in the late 80s he'd seen his fair share of "many men" … as well as women die for their nation in both literal in figurative darkness. Since joining the clandestine services , the number of casualties hadn't increased as much as the darkness had. By definition, the NSA and the CIA's casualties, both in victory and defeat, were dark … men and women would sacrifice for something larger then themselves, and never receive the recognition they deserved for it. Longshore … Langston Graham … Bryce Larkin …Stephen Bartowski…. Other guys in the NSA and CIA and his supporting tactical teams whose names he hadn't even learned. Different guys with different styles, different motivations to serve … but they ended up making a difference… making life a little safer for the people in this country, and a little more difficult for the ones who'd hurt them. George Washington wouldn't have known it at the time, but he might just as well had been talking of them- giving their all for people who would carry on in blissful ignorance of their derring-do.

His eyes fell to the inscription to the left of the general.

**IN UNMARKED GRAVES WITHIN THIS SQUARE LIE THOUSANDS OF UNKOWN SOLDIERS OF WASHINGTON'S ARMY WHO DIED OF WOUNDS AND SICKNESS DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR**

Casey suddenly felt hollow and sad. 1776 was a different time from 2014 … even different from the Civil War era. When Casey or another American leader lost a guy in the 21st century, he was consoled by the fact that that man or woman died defending American freedom. Poor Washington watched his men die for a freedom that had not yet been won – and on several occasions looked as if it may never be. How many casualty reports did Washington have to endure with the horrifying thought that his men were dying in vain?

With no nation yet, the concept of a national cemetery like Arlington, Gettysburg or even the _Arizona_ Memorial was simply a concept that Washington and his men were not familiar with. Big shots like generals might have their remains shipped home when they died… but the anonymous, young kids who did the fighting and died doing it would be buried where they lay … or carted out to the local potter's field like this. No honor guard, no 21 gun salute, no TV footage for the local news, no flag draped coffin… in fact no coffin at all, maybe a hat placed over their face of the fallen unknown hero. If he were very lucky, perhaps a preacher or a friend to say a word or two as his body went into to the dirt, there for the no-longer-needed body to become fodder for the worms and … Casey looked around at the lovely park … food for the very pretty trees, hedges, grass and bushes that made up this park.

All about him, Americans were doing mundane, simple, pleasant things, probably giving scant thought to the heroes whose bodies had long since turned to dust beneath their feet. Playing chess, walking the dog, falling in love…. Washington Square wasn't the kind of place that demanded silence and respect like an official cemetery … but it had its own kind of dignity, legacy, and connection to Americans, that Casey decided he couldn't feel bad about.

Quietly coming to attention, Colonel John Casey, USMC /NSA snapped off a quick salute to the tomb, and to the statue of that tomb's occupant's commander.

"Rest easy guys. We'll take it from here."

* * *

**Philadelphia Pennsylvania**

**Jolly Good Gemstones**

**5****th**** and Pine Streets**

Immediately after ditching Casey, Chuck and Sarah's first brief stop was the Ranger station for Independence National Park. Sarah's purse required, and now slung over her shoulder they made their way down 5th street to their destination.

"Okay we're here!" Chuck said as they entered. "Text Morgan that we're at the _Botany Bay_."

Having little problem remembering the code name for the jeweler, Sarah created the text. She did not however have memorized the movie that Chuck and Morgan decided to reference and so send out.,

**We're in Botany Bay.**

There were only two other people in the store. One was the sales clerk and she, a fairly pretty, middle aged lady had a look of forced politeness as she answered the questions of the customer. The customer was a young, twent something man. It probably wasn't his age that annoyed the lady … after all, when Chuck himself had been in college he had seriously thought about ring shopping for Jill Roberts in the next year or two … but the way he was dressed, in pain smeared jeans and an untucked t-shirt made him an unorthodox and noteworthy shopper.

With the store otherwise to themselves, Chuck and Sarah proceeded, Chuck falling in behind the young man, and Sarah veering off to the right to examine the necklaces.

The young man clearly had not made up his mind and waved the sales lady off, where she turned her attention to the much nicer dressed Chuck Bartowski.

"May I help you sir?"" she asked.

"Yes, I hope so. My name is Chuck Bartowski and I've been speaking to a Mr. William Shaler. He said that it'd be okay for me to come in and close out my friend Morgan Grimes' account."

The sales lady brightened. "Oh yes, Mr. Bartowski. Mr. Shaler said to expect you. That'll be no trouble at all. You have your ID, yes?"

"Yes, I do."

Sarah had just examined a jewel studded necklace- she had been wrong, most of these would probably go well with a white bikini outfit- when she heard Chuck admire "wow."

The sales lady had produced Morgan's ring that he intended to give to Alex. Chuck beamed in delight for his friends. They'd be so happy, and he imagined a lifetime of beach parties, Christmas parties and other events with his best friend and best friend's wife-to-be, all these events with her wearing this ring.

"Looks great! I'll take it!" Chuck said facetiously, bringing out his wallet. With his cell in the other hand, he fired off a jubilant text to Morgan.

**Ceti Eel secured! Away team preparing to beam out!**

"Actually _I'll_ take it!" announced the other customer, brandishing a Colt Mustang from his rear waistband, and pointing it at the sales lady. With his free hand he went to his pocket, pulled out a large Ziplock food storage bag, and tapped the counter that Chuck and the sales lady were standing at. "this case and" gesturing to the display to the left "that case! In the bag. Now, yo!" Pointing the gun at Chuck, he yelled "the ring, too! And your wallet!"

From a distance of seven yards away, Sarah thought fast – and restrained herself at the sight of the bandit pointing a gun at her husband's head. The only thing she did for this moment was clutch her specially made purse around her waist, and unsnap its special compartment.

At the same time, Chuck flashed. To the uninitiated sales lady and robber, it looked like the hapless tourist was having a seizure or a mild panic attack. In the timespan of about a second and a half, he accessed the Intersect's hand-to-hand combat training manual, and prepared to disarm this thug at the next opportunity. All he'd need is for the goon to wave the gun around and point it at a direction other than himself, the saleslady, or Sarah, and then he'd pounce.

Sarah recognized the flash for what it was, and knew that her husband would be vulnerable for the brief period he accessed info from the Intersect. To distract the gun slinger, she played the part of the panicking, helpless housewife. "Please…" she whimpered in a faux-terrified voice "please don't hurt my husband!"

Flush with confidence at what he saw as an easy heist, the t-shirt wearing man turned the gun on Sarah. "You! Get over here! Gimmie that purse!"

Now it was Chuck's turn to distract. Slamming his hand down on the counter her took two steps closer to the gunman, placing his body between the goon and the sales lady. This accomplished two things at once. First it allowed the frightened sales woman to duck behind the counter, where Chuck hoped and prayed a silent alarm would be. Second, it brought the thug's attention back to him, and away from Sarah.

At this point the desperado made several blunders, all within the space of a few seconds, and each one compounding the last. Working on the weak assumption that Chuck was the one most likely to resist, and the even more rickety notion that Sarah was cowed into submission, he turned his back on Sarah to regard Chuck. Then he pointed his gun back to Chuck, simultaneously making two more colossal errors. Not only was he pointing a gun at a victim at point-blank range, where the gun could be slapped away or snatched, but he was threatening Chuck Bartowski in the presence of his fanatically protective and lethally competent wife. Any one of these mistakes would have been enough to cost him the day's score. Taken in the aggregate, these gaffes nearly cost him much more.

As former federal armed employees, both Chuck and Sarah were licensed to carry firearms in all 50 US states, all territories and possessions, and the District of Columbia. Chuck, having lived most of his adult life without a gun, seldom carried one anywhere, his SigSauer P229R living in a safe under the bed, only coming out when Sarah challenged him to a shooting competition at the local range … where he'd be competitive with her … but only with the use of the Intersect.

Sarah had lived most of her adult life with her Smith & Wesson 5906 in her holster, or tucked into her waistband or purse. If Sarah was out and about, her 5906 was probably not in the safe. Nor was it today. Indeed, up until the point where the bandit turned his Colt back to Chuck, Sarah's weapon was residing inconspicuously in special compartment of her purse. Then it wasn't.

Chuck's typical post-flash grin grew as he saw the gunman blissfully unaware of his new and serious predicament.

"I said," Sarah now spoke in a calm, crisp tone "please don't hurt my husband."

The luckless stickup man turned his head 180 degrees, and found himself staring down the rifled barrel of Sarah's 5906, her icy cold blue right eye directly over the post sight atop the barrel. He was making his final mistake of the day, pointing his gun in one direction, while looking at the other. While the robber concentrated on the muzzle of Sarah's gun, Chuck struck. With a strong swing of his right, he hit the gun with the heel of his hand, battling the weapon away from him. Then his left hand came up and wrapped around the stickup man's wrist. At the same time, Chuck advanced a step, bringing himself closer to the thug, and bringing the goon's gun past his own body, and pointing helplessly now at the wall.

"Drop your gun." Sarah demanded.

Not quite grasping how overmatched he was, the gunman tried to struggle. Chuck responded by hitting him five times in the head with the heel of his right hand. Dazed now and starting to lose consciousness, the perp now changed his mind and started to sink to the ground. Chuck heard a heavy clatter as the gun hit the carpeted floor.

"Chuck, let go. Get the gun." Sarah said.

Chuck did, picking up the fallen Colt and bringing it over to the counter. He disengaged the magazine and slid back the action to eject the live round.

In the distance, Chuck and Sarah could hear multiple oncoming sirens. That's when more trouble came in through the door. A similarly unkempt looking man came through the front, waving his own gun. Not noticing the situation right away, he came in yelling "Yo Jimmie! Five-oh's here! We gotta… Damn!"

He didn't even get a chance to aim his gun at anyone, turn to run away, or even drop his weapon. Chuck flashed once more, and accessed a knife throwing skill set not unlike the one Sarah had spent years perfecting. Snatching the ejected magazine of the first gun on the counter, Chuck picked it up and threw it, launching it directly at the bandit's nose. Chuck's Intersect-enabled throw was perfect and he was quickly rewarded with a smack and an "owwww!"" as his hands flew to his wounded nose, including the gun hand which now held the weapon pointed unhelpfully at the wall.

It didn't knock him out, but it did stun and disorient him to the point that when he turned away to escape, he didn't notice the two Philadelphia Police officers arriving on scene, their own weapons drawn. He slammed into both of them, and bounced off like a racquetball ending up on the floor like his co-thug.

At the sight of the two cops, Sarah made safe her own weapon and rested it on the counter, lest the arriving cops get the wrong idea about her.

Chuck sighed. This was supposed to have been done by now. Now there'd no doubt be interviews and statements with the police. They'd be delayed.

With a sigh, as the arriving police secured the scene and cuffed the two heist men, Chuck brought out his cell phone and texted Morgan.

**Away Team attacked by a Romulan. Nobody hurt. Ceti Eel still secure. Speaking with Starfleet Security. Will Be Delayed.**

* * *

**Philadelphia Pennsylvania**

**The Four Seasons Hotel**

**One Logan Circle**

Ellie was catnapping on her lounge chair at the pool deck, never truly falling asleep as long as Clara was in the water. Devon was pulling their daughter this way and that, and Alex and Morgan were taking turns chatting with each other or playing a little bit with Clara, who was having the time of her life no matter what she was doing.

At length, Morgan got out of the pool, trotted over to his chair and located his towel. He spied the phone where he had left it, and read the text message … which was by now fifteen minutes old. "Uhggg!" he said softly, as he toweled himself off.

Morgan dialed Chuck's number, and Ellie half-heard what he said next. "Hey Chuck…. Everyone okay? Ok good…. Any idea how long? … …. Okay that's good… … Where's Casey? …. Okay. Can we meet up? … City hall? Ummmm okay…. ASAP? Okay cool. You'll be westbound, right? Okay. Fine under City Hall. … ASAP. …. Cool. See you in a little bit.

Morgan stilled his phone, and then turned to Alex in the pool and gasped in delight as Alex strode up the aluminum ladder. "Wow." Morgan sighed. "Honey you look totally Pheobe Cates at this moment right now. A reddish-brunette haired Pheobe Cates."

"Why thank you." Alex smiled sweetly. "What's up?"

"Well – I gotta go downtown for a second. I'll be right back."

"Okay, I'll come with."

"Uh, no. Bad idea! It's something that Chuck wants to tell me … something about Sarah's birthday."

"We're doing her birthday? Here in Philadelphia?" Alex challenged.

"No. Not really. But…. I gotta go talk to them! I'll be back in about an hour.!"

"And I can't come? Why not? My dad's down there, and I'd like to know what he thought about Independence Hall!"

"Oh, your dad's on the way. He'll be here soon. They got separated after City Hall…. I mean _Independence_ Hall! I gotta go." Still damp, Morgan began to head for the exit of the pool deck.

He hadn't gotten five steps when Alex, her arms crossed sternly demanded "Morgan Guillermo Grimes, I got this bikini just to show off for you, and you want to run away from me? Without telling me what's going on?"

"Uhh.." Morgan backtracked to Alex, and held her gently by grasping her upper arms. "Alex, You know that I'm absolutely crazy about you, and I like telling you everything, but I need to spend a few minutes with Chuck about Sarah alone. I promise we're not doing anything weird or spy related." Then Morgan kissed Alex, and skipped out of the pool area.

Alex's curiosity wasn't satisfied, but she did feel her annoyance breaking down as she watched her boyfriend exit. Gliding back to the pool, she sweetly cooed to Devon. "Devon, we're friends right? If you knew why Morgan was acting so strangely, you'd tell me, right?"

Devon could only answer truthfully. "Uhh. Yeah. I would."

"Ellie?" Alex asked searchingly, calling over the short distance to the chair.

Perking up from her catnap, Ellie smiled sweetly "Of course Alex. You know I'm team … "Malex" … all the way. If anything was happening, I'd tell you." Her smile was one of pure innocence and ignorance.

Alex couldn't help but t laugh a little at the portmanteau, and hopped back into the pool. She was humored to the point where she missed noticing that she'd just allowed herself to be reassured by a woman who was sister of a spy, sister-in-law to another spy, and daughter to two more, and took Ellie's reassurance at face value, as she allowed herself to be splashed by Clara.


	4. The Hand-Off

_**A/N: **__Well Comic-Con was last weekend, so I hope Chuck and Sarah rocked the Buck Rodgers and Princess Ardalla look!_

**Chapter 4**

**The Hand-Off**

* * *

**Philadelphia Pennsylvania**

**5****th**** Street**

"Ok" Sarah said with steadfast determination and with her smart phone at the ready. "We should be there in less than 10 minutes. Just over half a klick north on Fifth and … oh wait a minute- it's the same subway stop as before. Right by Independence Hall."

Fortunately they hadn't needed to come down to the police station to make a report. The corroborating statement from the sales woman, the video surveillance footage, and the outstanding warrants on the debilitated thugs left little doubt in the minds of the Philadelphia Police Department as to what had happened at the jewelry store. Chuck simply gave his statement on scene, Sarah gave hers, They made sure her concealed carry permit was up to date. And with that the detectives had allowed Chuck and Sarah on their way, their brush with Philadelphia's criminal element having only cost them 45 minutes or so.

Now the two of them marched at a brisk, determined pace up Fifth Street.

"So what's our plan?" Sarah wanted to know.

"We're going to the hotel. Morgan is coming towards us, to officially ask Casey's blessing. He wanted the ring to do it, so he could show it to Casey. So we're meeting him under Philadelphia City Hall, on the subway platforms to make the drop-off. Then we go to the Four Seasons, and Morgan meets Casey at City Tavern."

"Okay" Sarah said, thinking fast. "I'll make the exchange. I have to wish Morgan good luck. So I'll take the Blue subway with you to the City Hall, stop, get out, and cross over to the eastbound platforms and meet Morgan there. Then he gets the ring, and continues west to 2nd Street to find Casey. Then we … " Sarah looked at her map.

"We retrace Morgan's steps, and take one of the green cars to 19th street. Ellie and Devon told me to memorize these routes."

"So that means Morgan's going to be coming at us from those green cars." Sarah said, thinking aloud.

For such a large city, Philadelphia curiously enough only had one true subway line. This was the Orange line, and Chuck and Sarah were _not_ interested in it. It ran north and south, the length of Broad Street, Philly's largest north-south thoroughfare, and so was unimaginatively named the Broad Street Line.

What Chuck and Sarah were interested was the Blue Line, known as the Market-Frankford Line, the route of which looked like the capital letter L that had been knocked on its back. First it ran from west to east in a straight line, along, over and under Market Street and then curved north as it approached the Delaware River – as if the trains were afraid of getting wet … or possibly feared the fate of going into New Jersey. The route then moved northerly, fairly close to the river's edge to the Philadelphia neighborhood of Frankford.

Oddly enough this Blue Line was not called a 'subway', but an 'El'- short for "elevated train". Why? Because on some parts of its route, it was two or three stories in the air, and in others it was underground like a subway, like at the corner of Market Street and Fifth Street. And so Chuck and Sarah sought out the subway stop for a subway that wasn't called a subway, in order to board an elevated train that wasn't elevated, but rather underground. Sarah thought it was interesting, even amusing. Chuck thought it was kind of stupid. _Why did they build it like that? Who thought that was a good idea?_, and _Who do I complain to?_ were questions Chuck Bartowski knew that it was pointless to ask.

Adding onto the peculiarity was that whenever they built this underground/in-the-air railway, the engineers evidently forgot that there were any numbers between "15" and "30". The Blue Line blazed past 15 blocks between 15th Street and 30th Street with no stops in between. Thus in order for Morgan to meet them at the 15th street station, he'd need to take one of the Green Line cars– small, single trolley cars that trundled around the city on several other light rail lines – that all converged in the center of the city – the spine of east and west Market Street.

As the couple arrived at 5th and Market street and discovered the … "subway" … entrance, Chuck made a silent vow to never complain about traffic on the 5 or the 405 in LA ever again. There was a reason Los Angelinos were addicted to their cars, and that was because cars were good. Philadelphia's mass transit system, he was deciding, was bad.

* * *

**Philadelphia Pennsylvania**

**19****th**** and Market Sreet**

_If I ever design a city,_ Morgan Grimes griped_. I will hire three or four of the most smart- alecky, wise-assed fourth graders I can find to work as my advisors. They will be well paid, have the best benefits that taxpayers can provide, and have a light workload. There whole job will be to test out names for places and things, and if it's too easy to make a dirty joke about these things, I'll change the name._

The musing dawned on him as he boarded the green underground trolley at the 19th Street station trolley stop, and began to proceed east towards the rendezvous point and towards Chuck and Sarah. Catching the name on the placard of the trolley, he noticed that it said "Thank you for riding SEPTA". Other signage throughout the trolley car explained SEPTA as the acronym for South Eastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority.

_ The first thing my team of fourth graders would say to do would be to change THAT name to something that doesn't sound so close to "septic". Nobody should have to think of sewage when they ride to work!_

"Next stop" the conductor announced "15th street station! For City Hall, and Free interchange for the MFL and the BSL" Yet more signage explained that the conductor had just announced the Market-Frankford Line and the Broad Street Line.

_ … and then my team would say to ditch any set of initials that involve the letters "MF" or "BS" so close together!_ Morgan sighed, although the juvenile in him was amused. Were Philadelphians _trying_ to get the world to make fun of them? How could a city that had given the world Kevin Bacon, Seth Green, Tina Fey and Will Smith possibly manage to be so uncool?

Yet there were many more things to worry about … well perhaps only two, but they were big enough. First of all, it was becoming obvious that he was no expert at planning a clandestine operation to the detailed point where Alex couldn't sense that something unusual was up… and it was apparent that she was becoming slightly annoyed at his odd-even-for-him behavior.

Second of all, he was about to ask the blessing of probably the most intimidating man this side of Chuck Norris for his blessing in asking for his only daughter's hand_. No scratch that … I've never actually __**seen**__ Chuck Norris kill anybody._ Casey was the scariest.

It's not that Morgan was particularly old school when it came to this sort of thing. After all, he had officiated at Chuck and Sarah's wedding as a Minister of the Intergalactic Federation of Planets, and could be as unorthodox and non-traditional as the best of them. "Old School" did not describe him. Morgan simply had "No School" to speak of and simply drew upon his own experiences. "Big" Mike Powell had asked him for his blessing when he wanted to marry Bolonia, his mother. When he asked Chuck for his advice, Chuck's own experience had been singularly unhelpful, as his singularly remarkable wife had no easily accessible father figure to give her away, or for Chuck to ask for a blessing.

Chuck did however mention that when Devon planned to marry Ellie, he came to Chuck first and asked for his blessing. With three so-far-so-good happy marriages in his admittedly shallow reference pool, and 2/3ds of them coming with familial blessings, Morgan had decided that asking for Casey's blessing was quite the thing to do.

With a rasping hiss of steel breaks, the trolley squealed to halt at its radioactive green colored platform. After exiting, Morgan bounded up the steps of the underground transfer center of 15th street station, and sought out the blue steps for the Market-Frankford El. _Why is the "El" underground?_ He thought with futility, before summoning his courage for the task at hand.

* * *

**Philadelphia Pennsylvania**

**15****th**** and Market Street**

**15****th**** Street Station**

**(Below City Hall)**

_ "Fif-TEENTH Street STA-tion. Free IN-ter-CHANGE for The BROAD Street Line, and DI-verted Trolley Routes. TRANS-fers for SEP-TA Re-gion-al Rail"_

The computerized, robotically feminine voice droned out to Chuck and Sarah, sounding a lot like one of the alarms they knew in Castle back in Burbank. The droid-railway-car seemed to have trouble with its multi syllable words, and the result was a weird message. It was just enough to send a shiver up Chuck's spine.

"HELL-o PRO-fessor –FalKON. This IS JOSHua" Chuck mumbled to himself.

The doors on the flank of the blue streaked El Car opened up, and Chuck and Sarah poured out with a goodly number of their fellow passengers. Chuck was content to wait until the El pulled out of the station again to get his bearings for the opposite platform, but Sarah, who knew her ways around London's Tube, Paris's Metro, New York's MTA, DC's Metro and a dozen or so other mass transit cities immediately searched for a nearby staircase. She knew that among other places, one of the options it would lead to was the opposite platform.

"Give me the ring, I'll go make the hand-off" Sarah instructed. Chuck complied as both his and Sarah's cell phone's chirped.

"You sure?" Chuck asked.

Sarah scoffed. Overprotective Chuck was new- and slightly annoying, if endearing, and he'd probably only get worse as the summer and autumn went on. Sarah oft enjoyed it … but just as often enjoyed shrugging him off. "Yes, Chuck I can handle two flights of steps."

As Sarah charged up the stairs, Chuck simply hung back and admired his aggressive wife as she charged up the stairs, a statuesque blonde force that moved with a determination comparable to a Black Friday doorbuster shopper.

From the west, an opposite El train roared into the station. Now at the top of her first staircase, Sarah knew that it was of little relevance, since Morgan wouldn't be on it. But since the trains only ran a few minutes apart, hopefully he'd be able to get on the next one. Sarah traversed the small concourse, ignored the gray signs that invited her to street level, ignored the orange signs for the Broad Street Line, temporarily ignored the signs for the green trolley cars, and followed the blue sign that took her to the El eastbound.

She checked her phone to read Morgan's message.

**Morgan Grimes: I found the blue stairs! I'll be there in a minute!**

One downward staircase later, Sarah cast a stare down the length of the entire platform. At the end of it was a green tunnel, suggesting the access point for Morgan. Across the tracks on the opposite, eastbound platform, Chuck waved to her.

True to his message, the Bartowskis's beaded friend came charging down the tunnel. He picked out Sarah immediately – indeed, she was always hard to miss, and Sarah produced the ring and the box. His small legs devoured the distance of the platform in an impressive time frame, only slowing when he was within ten feet of Sarah.

Sarah beamed as she produced the ring in the box. "Here you go Morgan."

Snapping open the box, Morgan examined it with delight. "Thank you! Thank you thank you thank you!" Securing the ring in a special compartment in his small backpack, he hissed with glee "_My Preciousssssss"_

_ "Don't_ say that when you propose. Morgan" Sarah admonished, only half confident that he wasn't thinking of doing just that.

"I hope she likes it" Morgan said with a note of trepidation.

"Morgan, Alex is going to love it. You'll propose, she'll say yes, and she'll drag you back to the hotel. Shell make me a bridesmaid, you'll make Chuck your best man, and we'll all live happily ever after."

"Well yeah, but that assumes that Casey doesn't kill me for fun when I ask his blessing. And that might be a little overly optimistic."

"Oh, don't worry" Sarah smiled. "Casey wouldn't dare. If he hurt you, he'd have to explain himself to Alex. He doesn't want to do that. Athletic girls like Alex can be pretty frightening and intense when the men they love are threatened or hurt. Or so I've read" the very athletic, very frightening-and-intense-when-Chuck-was-threatened-or-hurt Sarah winked. "So for all intents and purposes, you're untouchable."

"Funny. I feel like I should be wearing a Starfleet red shirt." Morgan said, not soothed.

"Just be yourself, and tell Casey the truth, and then tell Alex how you feel. Everything else will fall into place. "Do you know where you're going?"

"Yeah, the next El train, It 'll take me all the way down to 2nd Street. Old City Tavern is just a few blocks south of the El stop. Here it comes now. "With a growing rumble, another eastbound El train thundered into the station, coming up to Sarah and Morgan's position.

"Great, right." Sarah put out her last well wish. "And Morgan?"

Morgan was already peering into the El car for an empty seat. "Yeah?" he asked halfheartedly.

"I totally give you permission to marry my best West Coast friend. Alex has become very important to me since Ellie left for Chicago. So I want you to take good care of her."

Blushing at having his words from three years ago sent back to him, Morgan smiled. "Thanks Sarah". He eagerly threw his arms around her, and to her surprise, stole a kiss on her cheek with his bearded face. As the doors to the El car opened next to him he winked. "Don't tell Chuck. I don't want him jealous."

Sarah smiled back. "I won't if you don't tell Alex. I don't want _her_ jealous."

"Deal!" The bearded one chirped he entered the car, and the doors shut behind him.

Sarah watched the El pull away and accelerate down the tunnel to the east. It was odd how much Morgan had become part of her life. They were an odd setup as friends. Sarah's indifference to him at first was so great that Chuck once had to describe his importance in his life, and indeed Sarah had to confront the fact that she hadn't many friends in her life. Eventually she and Morgan had bonded, united in their affection for Chuck Bartowski.

With neither an east nor westbound train occupying the rail beds, Sarah could see her husband on the opposite platform. Smiling, she gave him the thumbs up gesture, and then holding up an index finger up, she pointed to the level above, in a silent instruction to meet her on the upper level of the concourse. It was too nice a day to spend any more time in tunnels, and the hotel was only a few diagonal blocks up the Parkway.


	5. The Parkway and the Tavern

**Chapter 5**

**The Parkway and the Tavern**

_**A/N: **__But of course Sarah is at least part Polish, and not just because she's played by Y.S. (happy belated birthday, Yvonne, btw!) Polish is her preferred language every time she chats with Carina. It has to have some special meaning to her._

_Your fearless author, a graduate of Catholic school, had his baccalaureate mass at the Cathedral Basilica of Sts Peter and Paul, and so of course it deserves a mention here._

_For those of you who've never had a tour of downtown Philly, you're welcome._

* * *

**Philadelphia Pennsylvania**

**Market and Broad Streets**

**City Hall **

Chuck Bartowski had to admit, his wife was a genius. Walking the remaining half mile to the Four Seasons was a much more pleasant alternative to taking an underground trolley to a point a few blocks west … from where they'd inevitably have to walk a few blocks north anyway. Not only was the day pleasant, but the sights were nifty, far more than the subway tunnels, of which Chuck had had quite enough of.

If the five squares of Philadelphia resembled a roll of "5" on a die, then Chuck and Sarah were walking around the center spot, Philadelphia's impressively massive City Hall. Their destination was the northwest square, Logan Square. If it had been any of the other three squares the grid pattern of the streets would have required a zig-zag course.- But the Philadelphia map was their friend, and City Hall and Logan Square were connected by the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, a diagonal, spectacular, scenic boulevard that dramatically violated the north-south / east-west grid pattern of the streets, and stretched about a mile and half to the north east. A large number Philly's structures and fair sights were located on it or about it.

Chuck and Sarah started by checking out the front of City Hall. It was huge and white, with lots of ornaments. In the front were two equestrian statues of two … generals … Chuck assumed. The podiums said that one guy was named Reynolds, and the other was named McClellan. Their hats looked mostly like baseball caps, so Chuck assumed they were Civil War generals, as Revolutionary War generals tended to have triangle hats, and World War I and II generals rode cars and Jeeps, not horses.

Crossing to the next block to the northwest, Sarah gave a short gasp of glee. A fountain was shooting forty feet into the air, and the whiteness of the frothy water perfectly highlighted the whimsical sculpture in front of it facing Chuck and Sarah. The sculpture was the word "LOVE" in red letters with the four letters on top of each other, so that the "LO" rested atop the "VE". Nearby signage told the couple that they were in what was officially named JFK Plaza … but locals had nicknamed "Love Park".

Chuck had to grin with his wife. This was cute, and already their impromptu stroll to the hotel was paying big dividends.

"Selfie time." Sarah decreed, and brought out her iPhone, and snuggled close to Chuck, to get the sculpture in the background. So concentrated on this were they that they barely noticed the two Philadelphia Police officers roll up to them on their bikes. They were garbed in brilliant – almost eye-aching yellow, and had blue bike helmets and shades. They grinned in amusement at the couple's attempt to get the perfect portrait with the LOVE sculpture.

"You two want a picture?" the older one of the partnership offered his outstretched hand. Clearly the cops who patrolled this section were used to dealing with tourists, particularly amorous ones who couldn't resist the sculpture.

"Yes! Thank you!" Sarah replied in delight. She handed the friendly cop the phone, and went to Chuck, who offered his arm around her as they both smiled.

The officer tapped the screen. "That's a winner." He declared as he showed them the result.

"Thanks a lot, officer." Chuck said. "Be safe."

"We will, Thanks a lot. Have a good day." The two silently slid away on their bikes to complete their circuit around the park.

"Huh" Chuck thought, looking up at the sculpture. "What do you think? Possible proposal spot for Morgan?" Already he had his phone out to take a picture and text it to Morgan.

Sarah smiled. The sculpture was silly and fun, and well framed by the fountain. It'd be a strong possibility. Still she was curious. "He hasn't figured out a place yet?"

"Nooooo" Chuck said, with an affectionate hint in his voice. "Morgan's philosophy is to let the lady lead the guy to the ideal spot."

"Oh really?" Sarah laughed. "He's done this before?"

"No, but he coached me around that chateau where I wanted to propose to you. I can still remember his advice –'Chuck, let Sarah lead you to the best spot'" and he was right. You led me to the balcony."

Sarah gaped. "I … did not know that! Or did I know that and lose that memory?" She wondered, suddenly concerned.

"Nope. I never told you. I knew the chateau was going to have a few romantic possibilities, but Morgan was right. You led me to the balcony."

Sarah smiled. "Alex and I are lucky women to have big softy romantics like you two." The happy couple stole a kiss by the sculpture. Then, holding hands, the two proceeded through the Plaza, continuing in a northwesterly direction. It felt as they were back in Paris again in spring of 2010, new to each other, and with barely a care in the world worth considering. It was warm, but not oppressively hot, and the day was sunny and lovely.

As they emerged from the block sized park, they both smiled in excitement. When seen from this point of view, the Benjamin Franklin Parkway was a magnificent vista. No wonder the Philadelphia 4th of July Parade was going to be held here tomorrow. It was spectacular.

"Chuck it looks like the_ Champs-Élysées_" Sarah noticed, truly impressed.

"Wow. Tomorrow is going to be so much fun!" Chuck really had no idea what the acts and floats of the parade were going to entail, but if setting were anything to go by it was promising.

The Parkway stretched, straight and clear for almost a mile from their position. A second fountain, this one in Logan Square now not even 200 yards distant shot water up into the air, just like the Love Park one behind them. Far behind it, in the distance was a massive colonnaded building, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, a mile away, but so large that it was imposing even at this range. Ranks of trees flanked the Parkway, and the place had an international air, as from a hundred or more streetlamps, flags of almost every nation smacked in the summer breeze.

The Parkway didn't lack for decoration, either. As they began their walk up, across the street from them was a fairly disturbing statue, a memorial to the Holocaust. Further in the distance, to the left, or south of Logan Square was a very large statue of yet another general. Much further down the Parkway, about halfway the distance to the Art Museum were two large stone monoliths flanking the road way, although they were too far away for Chuck and Sarah to figure out what they designated.

Crossing the next two blocks to Sister Cities Park, they took a moment to appreciate the fountain at Logan Square, one block away. Statues of three Native Americans reclined in the center, and oriented their favorite water animals out into the main pool. The animals, two swans and a fish, spat water out into circular lake, while frogs and turtles spewed water back at them.

A little less beautiful was the severe, bunker like appearance of the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul. It was reddish brown, with a green copper dome … and looked a little uninviting, as far as Cathedrals went. An interpretive sign located by Sarah explained why. There were no windows at the ground level, as the place was built at a time when Catholic churches were often vandalized by nativists. The lack of windows made all the difference, giving the structure a closed-off forbidding aura.

They were practically at the Four Seasons now and Chuck led Sarah by the hand towards the main entrance. Their path took them by the statue they had noticed a little earlier. It was much larger than life, and the couple paused to admire this one too. No historical expert, but mindful of his Polish heritage Chuck Bartowski recognized the name and said "ah-ha!"

Thaddeus Kosciusko, one of George Washington's top foreign born officers in the Revolution and apparently an engineer of some sort, stood with a sheathed sword across his waist, and arms clasped behind him surveying the Parkway, as if his meticulous engineer's mind had laid it out, and he was monitoring the traffic flow. There were inscriptions in both English and Polish as Kosciusko was a national hero to both the United States and Poland.

"You know, I've never asked, honey. How Polish are you and Ellie?" Sarah wanted to know.

" Not very, I don't think." Chuck said. "My dad carried down the name 'Bartowski' but I think all the men on my dad's side started marrying Italian and Jewish girls a while ago. I'll have to ask my mom on that."

"You Bartowski men and your brunettes" Sarah teased for the millionth time. And for the millionth time, Chuck blushed and laughed.

"How about you, any in you?" Chuck asked.

"I think almost a fourth." Sarah said. "Mom's maiden name was Modieska. I'd have to check."

AS they made their way past Kosciusko's statue and into the front doors of the hotel, Cuck got out his phone to text Devon. The response told him that Clara was awaiting, and for the first time, Chuck noticed the picture of Elle and Clara that he had sent them. "Oh. Looks like we're required on the pool deck." Chuck informed. Gleefully, he showed the picture of his sister holding the toddler.

Sarah had to smile once more at the eagerness with Chuck sought to dote on his niece. What a wonderful uncle he was and what a great dad he'd be_. Better hope for a boy first_, Sarah thought, _Any girls we have will end up spoiled rotten._

* * *

**Philadelphia Pennsylvania**

**2****nd**** and Walnut Street**

**City Tavern**

Having long since eaten, Casey lingered a bit at the City Tavern. Three blocks west and two blocks south of Independence Hall, the City Tavern was about as old. It had an interesting atmosphere. In Revolutionary War times it was _the_ place for Continental Congressmen to hang out after their debates and cool off with a mug of ale or cider.

Casey was a Marine, not a diplomat or a statesman, and the goings on in Washington DC, the congressional debates about health care reform, education reform, immigration reform were typically not of interest to him. Oh, the goals were often noble and noteworthy, but the procedures were not, at least not to him. All the wheeling and dealing and lobbying and backstabbing and partisan politics and name calling and pork barreling and reshuffling of priorities … Casey knew that what happened in DC was important … but the way it happened was often pretty messed up.

The staff at the City Tavern enjoyed mentioning modern day lawmakers and speculating as to how much political chicanery, skullduggery, and shenanigans that were put into practice in the US Capitol were actually hatched at the various bars, steakhouses and sports pubs around Washington DC. If that were regarded to be likely, the City Tavern wait staff quickly supplied the logical jump that the historic City Tavern served the same purpose for the Continental Congressmen and Founding Fathers – it was far more likely that the idea for say … the Supreme Court was first imagined over a few drams here at a messy bar table, than at one of those green linen draped tables at Independence Hall.

_ Hey even Thomas Jefferson had to eat … and drink._ Casey considered. His reverie was interrupted by an immediately recognizable high pitched voice from the vestibule of the tavern.

"Hi. I'm looking for the Bartowski-Casey party?" he could hear Morgan's voice ask.

From the bar, Casey turned his head, and could see the bearded one jabbering with the host for just a moment when he met Casey's look. Casey had one of those sharp looks that could freeze water in a canteen, and Morgan had little doubt that Casey had seen him.

"Never mind, I found him." Morgan sighed, and tried hard to keep his courage from abandoning him. _Use The Force, Luke…_ There was a good thing about this location – there were plenty of bar patrons and wait staff around. Casey wasn't likely to kill him here and now… unless Casey was so hell bent on killing him that he'd just take out the whole bar as well … which was unlikely … but not impossible.

"Wasn't expecting to see _you_ Grimes." Casey said as he resumed his seat, Morgan taking the seat opposite. "Bartowski and Bartowski stood me up. They were going to pick up some bling for Sarah, but I guess they decided to eat somewheres else"

Thankful that Casey had granted him a segue, Morgan latched onto it. "Yeah … I'm sure they went shopping for Sarah, but the fact is that they went to the Jolly Good Jewelers for me. They were picking up something for me."

"Really." Casey deadpanned as he drew in a deep breath.

Tensing up a little, Morgan simply said "yes." Slowly, he went to his backpack and produced the ring box from the jewelry store. Very deliberately, he clattered it down onto the table.

"Griiiiiiiiiiimes." Casey rumbled with more than a touch of menace.

"Just hear me out Casey." Morgan quickly said. He could feel his courage starting to sap, and he knew he stood a great chance of chickening out and blowing this meeting. Like a sailor trying to bail water from a foundering craft, Morgan just spewed forth words while he was still coherent, fully cognizant that he'd be probably be flabby with fear in the next few moments.

"The truth of everything is that I'm crazy about Alex. I love her. And I want to marry her if that's what she wants. Now I know you have days were you don't like me, and you've had days where you've hated my guts. I know you think that Alex can do better, and to be honest, I agree with you. What she sees in me, I'm not 100% sure. Why she ever forgave me for what I did two years ago, I'm still kind of fuzzy on. I know I'm probably not your idea of her ideal guy. I can't promise that we'll have lots of money, and there's a great chance that any kids we have will short and uncoordinated, although hopefully Alex has the dominant genes in that category. "

"Grimes!" Casey bellowed for silence. The effect was immediate, and Morgan piped down. Casey allowed the barest shadows of an amused grin to curl the edges of his mouth. Gesturing to the box, he said "All was going to say is 'that thing had damn well better not be for me.'" He allowed a second or two for his quip to hit home.

Morgan choked out a laugh. "Uh, no. No Casey. Not for you. Wouldn't think of it." Casey watched as an almost physically real wave of relief washed over him. Morgan sighed a heavy, relieved sigh. "Wait a minute- you don't seem all that surprised"

Casey, finished with his smile, put it away, and resumed his typical stone face. "Grimes, If I could figure out when Bartowski was about to pop the question, what makes you think that I couldn't tell when you are? Like I told you. I'm a spy, not a moron."

Morgan was getting more relieved by the moment. "So Casey. The reason why I got Chuck and Sarah in on this was because I wanted to ask for your blessing before I did it."

" Mmmmmm"" Casey growled. "I see."

"Like I was saying. I know I'm not perfect for Alex. But I'm a good guy. I want to make her happy. I still haven't forgotten how bad I hurt her two and a half years ago, and I never want to do that again. I've tried to make up for it every day." Morgan said, speaking from the heart.

"Okay." Casey said, leaning back in his chair. "You want my blessing. Listen up, because here's my price: You don't ever forget the pain you caused her. The next fight you have, the next argument you get into, you remind yourself how close you came to completely flushing away the best thing that happened to a Buy Moron like you. You're right. Alex loves you. Don't ever risk blowing that. Ever. Not for any reason. I don't care if your mother comes to visit, and Alex is having a bad day cooking, you're on Alex's side, period. When I joined the Corps, I became part of a team. I had it drilled into me that don't ever let your team down. You're there for each other, and you have each other's backs, period. End of Story. Me, Walk- I mean _Sarah_ and Bartowski acted like a team too, with you. We stuck by each other, and went out on a limb for each other, way out. That's what you and Alex are gonna be. A team."

Morgan nodded. "I got it. I really do. Alex is the most important thing in my world. I get that."

"Good. And there's one more thing to remember." Casey scowled… not so much at Morgan, but at his own inefficiencies at word use. John Casey was a man of action, not of words, and communicating about feelings was among the least of his talents.

Satisfied that he was finding the right words, he continued. "You and me Grimes, we're two different kinds of guys. You me and Bartowski are three different kinds of guys. You, me Bartowski and Devon, are four different kinds of guys. Not a whole hell of a lot in common, you see."

"Yeah…" Morgan agreed.

"One thing the four of us have in common is… for some reason… we tend to have strong women in our corner. Don't know why that is. But it is. Alex. Kathleen. Gertrude. Sarah. Ellie. I guess to be fair we'd even have to count Carina and that Anna Wu gal you used to run with. Hell, even Beckman counts. You wouldn't think it, but Roan Montgomery got to her."

"Yeah. That's right. Huh. Never thought about that."

"Well think about it. Because there's something about strong women … they tend to have their guard up a _lot_ … so often that they sometimes come across as really tough to hurt. Don't let it fool you. Just because you have an iron lady doesn't mean you can be forgetful of their feelings. Feelings aren't _my_ strong suit, but they damned well better be _yours_. It's a mistake to think that you can get sloppy with their feelings. Don't make that mistake. Bartowski did. Did he ever tell you about what went down in Prague?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"Neither one of them told me. Didn't ask. Didn't really want to know. All I know was that it had to have been bad. Sarah was a wreck when she came back. _Sarah Walker_, I'm talking about, was as pissed off as a high school girl who just lost her boyfriend. I'd never met a tougher woman, and I had to see her brought down low. The only time I saw her more unhinged was when Chuck got kidnapped by the Belgian. It was an odd thing to watch. I didn't care for it. And the hell of it was that I knew it was _Chuck Bartowski_ she was upset about. Mr. Gentleman Sympathetic Ladyfeelings Himself. It wasn't as if he cheated on her with some hot Czech piece, or tried to hit her or something that was that obviously hurtful. Whatever he did, he did it not knowing that it was going to hurt Sarah. Maybe he thought that she was too tough to hurt. I don't know. If that's what was going through his head, I'd say it ranks among his bigger screw ups. Don't make that kind of screw-ups with Alex."

Casey had diagnosed Morgan's biggest of phobias for the last few years -that somehow someway he'd blunder into hurting Alex's feelings the way he had when he possessed a faulty Intersect. "I won't Casey. I promise. I hate the look that Alex gets when she's hurt. I never want to put that look on her face again. I've done a pretty good job of not screwing things up with her since."

"Well then." Casey said. "If that's the case, you've got my blessing. Now you need to blow this popsicle stand and get that rock where it belongs. Any thoughts on when and where?"

"A few. But, I want to find someplace fun and sweet. I got Chuck and Sarah and Ellie in on the plan, so it should go off pretty well."

"Good team. Lots of manpower. Whose idea was it to come down and ask for my blessing?"

"Actually that was all me. I know it's what Big Mike did when he wanted to marry my mom, and it's what Devon did for Chuck when he wanted to marry Ellie. If Sarah's dad was a big part of her life, Chuck probably would have asked him. But he's not so .."

"Right. Well I appreciate it Grimes. You have my blessing. Now let's go. It's time for you to get on with your … mission."

* * *

**Philadelphia Pennsylvania**

**The Four Seasons Hotel**

**One Logan Circle  
(Pool Deck)**

"Motorboat, motorboat goes so slow." Devon chirped. He was dragging Clara around the shallow end of the pool playing her favorite aquatic game. It stared out with him gently pulling her around by her hands, and then finally at "Motorboat, motorboat let's go fast! Motorboat motorboat, step on the gas!" Devon yanked hard on his daughter's arms, accelerating her through the water towards him to Clara's squeals of delight. The only downside to this game was that Clara never got tired of it, and demanded frequent repetition. Devon was the only one who could do it to Clara's satisfaction as Ellie, although strong, lacked Devon's impressive upper body strength. Alex too made a brave attempt at playing along, but Clara's standards were high indeed. Devon was coming close to needing a break, as he dragged Clara to the edge of the pool by their deck chairs.

"Hon, this little girl is tiring me out!" Devon faux complained, calling over to Ellie.

"Like mother like daughter, honey." Ellie grinned with a small amount of suggestive sauce in her wink. It was truly one of her great pleasures to watch her handsome husband dote on Clara, and Ellie imagined believed herself to be the envy of all women of the pool, knowing full well that Devon was noticed by most of the women sunning themselves on the deck.

"Babe. Public." Devon blushed.

"What?" Ellie grinned with a faux- innocent shrug.

"You two are like the happiest couple I know." Alex said, delighted at their flirtation. "Do you have a secret, or is it just this easy for the two of you?"

"Oh, Umm…" Devon began, before noticing that both Alex and his wife were looking at him, intently curious as to what was on his mind. "I say it's just this easy. It is on my part. Ellie makes it really easy."

Ellie was just about to counter when suddenly Alex perked up. "Oh, and speaking of happy couples. .."

Chuck walked through the door to the pool deck and collected a peck from Ellie.

"Bro!" Devon said. "We've been waiting on you! This one especially!"

"Unca Chuuuuuuuck!" Clara shouted with glee. Devon hoisted Clara out of the pool, _Lion King_ style as Chuck came over to the edge of the pool and got down on a knee to get a smooch from his niece. "Mmmmmmmwha!" Clara gave an enthusiastic exaggerated kiss.

"Awwwwww thanks!" Chuck said playfully. "Aunt Sarah and I were looking everywhere for you. We checked underneath all of the tables at Independence Hall and you weren't there. And then we checked inside the Liberty Bell and you weren't there, and Aunt Sarah said 'where's Clara hiding?' And I didn't know!"

"I right here!" Clara said with a laugh. "Where AnSaawah?"

"She's getting changed. She's going to be right down. She said I should get into the pool shoes and all." Chuck declared.

"Noooooooooo!" Clara demanded.

"Well then I guess I'd better get changed too. Aunt Sarah and I will be back down in ten minutes."

Devon called out to his bother in law as he left the pool deck. "Come back quick! Don't let her distract you! Be strong, bro!"

"Devon!" Ellie scolded from her deck chair.

"Yeah, like I'm totally out of line." Devon defended, earning laughs from both women.


	6. Chuck vs Sarah, Clara, and Ellie

**Chapter 6**

**Chuck vs Sarah, Clara and Ellie**

_**A/N:**__ If you're a Charah fan, and you're anything like me, you'll enjoy a good excuse to associate Sarah's white bikini she wore in "vs. The Pink Slip" with a good, sweet scene. Remember that Chuck never canonically sees it, although it's possible she's worn it for him in four years of couple hood._

_Washington's Spies__ is a real book, and the basis for A&E's series __TURN__, which is a great series by the way. Like __Chuck__ it's loaded with nifty spycraft, deceptions, covers and honeytraps. Like __Chuck__, it has Angus MacFayden. In fact, the Culper Ring was referenced by Chuck himself when handling the opera glasses in Chuck vs The Fat Lady._

_Also, I'm not entirely convinced that the opening credits from __TURN__ weren't inspired by the opening credits from __Chuck__._

_**Warn**__: There's some sexy stuff in here, but no sex._

* * *

**Philadelphia Pennsylvania**

**The Four Seasons Hotel**

**One Logan Circle  
(Room 714)**

Chuck Bartowski had been mildly hopeful that the head start he had given Sarah to the hotel room would have meant that she was ready and waiting when he arrived at their room … but only mildly so. The fact of the matter was that his wife could be quite meticulous about her appearance, and Chuck entered the hotel room to find the main room empty, but the bathroom door sealed shut.

Having arrived the prior night, they were moved in for the long weekend, with a few clothes in the closet and the chest of drawers, and Chuck was changed into his black swim trunks and _low_ cut (much better for the pool) Converse All-Stars quickly. Collecting his beach towel, he heaved a soft, amused sigh, and sat down on the bed, looking at the bathroom door in resignation the way Admiral Piett looked at the jaws of Vader's meditation chamber aboard the _Executor_. The door would simply open whenever it would open, and Sarah'd be ready whenever she was ready.

As he waited he toyed with the simple pool toy he'd gotten for Clara's amusement – a thick wooden dowel for her to grab onto, with room for Devon's and his own hands to grab to tow her around the pool if she wanted to play "motorboat".

Happily, Sarah had worked her routine down to a science, and the wait this time was brief. The door opened, and Chuck perked to pay attention. Sarah emerged from the bathroom with a cool, confident smile, the one she always wore when she knew she had Chuck's attention. Pausing at the doorway, she struck a pose worthy of a magazine model, with a hand on both doorjambs, and one foot atop the other, so that one of her legs was slightly bent.

Sarah's confidence was not unfounded. She wore a lovely white bikini, the bottoms of which, if they were any narrower at the waist, would be strings. The top was triangle pattern which left juuuuuuuuuust enough to the imagination, and was inventively fastened at the top with three brass rings on each side which climbed up the upper part of her chest, before meeting the cloth piece that looped around her neck.

Putting his extensive vocabulary into play as best he could, Chuck sat in awestruck silence, save for a simple "Wow." He also suppressed a grin at the fact that he was employing the wisdom gained from … … … hard won experience … He was wearing a pair of briefs underneath his swim trunks. He'd learned to do this on their honeymoon three years ago. Sarah was always going to look amazing anytime they hit the beach or the pool deck, and Chuck decided that he'd rather not have the proof of the fact that he always found her so stunning visible from tens or dozens of yards away.

Sarah took in his appreciation and smiled knowingly. "I've actually had this one for a few years" Sarah said with a seductive, breathy voice. "Say goodbye to it, because I'm about to ruin it for the Princess Ardala look. I'm thinking that if I apply sequins along the top half" – she brought he hand up to her chest – on the off chance that Chuck wasn't looking there anyway – " that'll do it for the bikini. I'll just be a horned helmet, an opaque cape, and a few sheer capes away. And now …" Sarah advanced in a seductive stalk "Captain Rodgers, it's time for you to learn how these things come off. I want you well trained in the art of stripping me of this outfit by the time Comic-Con rolls around. I demand on getting the full…" Sarah now stood before him and planted an aggressive kiss on his lips "royal …" another kiss "treatment … from my… prisoner." Her last kiss was passionate and deep, and her fingertips brushed down to his waist to tug at his t-shirt.

Knowing it'd only be a matter of moments before they were too far down this path to turn back, Chuck broke the kiss by pulling back his head. "Hon, no! Ellie, Devon and Clara want us down by the pool! Clara especially!"

But Sarah only grinned wickedly, planted two hands on Chuck's chest, and pushed hard, sending Chuck back to sitting on the bed. "But … _I'm_ an evil Draconian Princess! I live to crush the dreams of sniveling toddlers. What care I if an Earth child misses her uncle, especially if he can be put to better use pleasuring me?"

Grinning, Chuck decided the best way out for him would be to get more into the spirit of things, not less, and so with a burst of energy he grabbed Sarah's wrists, flipped her on her back and pinned her to the bed. Staring into her gorgeous blue eyes, he bravely declared, "now you listen here, princess! If you're not careful you'll wake up the inner hero in me. And then there'll be a fight and you don't want that. We're going down into the pool."

With a glint in her eye, Sarah challenged "oh yeah?"

"Yeah!"

"Alright then." Sarah relented, breaking character. Chuck let her go to get up and she quickly donned one of Chuck's t-shirts and a pair of shorts.

Stepping into her flip flops she once more seductively purred at Chuck "you shall pay for your insolence tonight, Captain Rodgers" bringing her lips up to his as if to kiss him. On instinct, Chuck puckered up, only to have Sarah snap her head back at the last second and deny the kiss, escaping by taking two steps backwards with a sultry wink "Pay quite dearly" she threatened. Swinging her pool bag over her shoulder, she made for the door. "You coming?"

Chuck, grateful to himself once more for remembering to wear briefs under his trunks, followed.

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* * *

**Philadelphia Pennsylvania**

**Market East Station**

**12****th**** and Market Streets**

After parting ways with Morgan, Casey had gone to Market East Station, one of three rail hubs in the city where all the commuter train lines that snaked out to the various Philadelphia suburbs met. Happily the one he was interested in ran just about every hour, and was leaving in less than 15 minutes.

"One. For the airport." He told the ticket clerk.

As the train lingered on the track and waited to embark, he glanced at the text that had arrived shortly after Morgan had left.

_**G.V. Flight takes off from Halifax in 20 minutes, Think on when and where we want to meet Charl'z Stefanovich and Sara Ivanova tomorrow.**_

Casey flicked his thumbs about around his own iPhone.

_**Get here safe. I'll find you at arrivals.**_

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**Philadelphia Pennsylvania**

**Independence National Historical Park Visitor Center**

**6th**** and Market Streets**

Morgan Grimes was alive, in possession of all his limbs, Alex's ring, and Casey's blessing. By all rights he should have considered himself in good shape. But no sooner had he separated with Casey then he went back to worrying, this time about Alex. Obviously she was going to demand to know where he had been, and just as obviously, he couldn't tell her.

Morgan had only just gotten back onto the El at 2nd Street. One stop later, he was wondering how he was going to explain his little impromptu trip when the El car voice announced _"FIFTH street STA-tion. FOR In-DE-PEN-dence NATION-al Park, and NATION-al CON-sti-TU-tion CEN-ter"_

Morgan was suddenly inspired. A cover story! That's it! His new story was that he was picking something up for Chuck, maybe something engineering related … or gadget related … or something like that. Surely the gift shop at Independence Park would offer some plausible alternatives.

Morgan jumped from his seat and exited the El car. A flight of steps later, he was back on street level right near Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell Pavilion. Through the caravans of tour buses, taxicabs, and horse drawn carriages that filled Market Street, Morgan could note the edifice of the Independence National Park Visitor Center – the likeliest place to find the park's gift shop – or if not, someone who knew where it was.

The two buildings were, he was delighted to find, one and the same. Indeed the gift shop was impossible to miss. About the size of his and Chuck's old apartment in Echo Park, the shop had practically anything that a history buff could imagine from kids toys to stuffed animals to t-shirts to pens.

And books. Lots and lots of books. Providentially, one of them was showcased prominently – _Washington's Spies – The Story of America's First Spy_ Ring by Alexander Rose.

Morgan flashed back to his mother's voice when watching a soccer game! Score! Goooaaaaaal! That'd be a great present for Chuck and Sarah even if it didn't make for such an ideal cover story. Time to establish! He snapped a pic and snagged the book. Ten minutes later, he was back on the underground El with his prize in his backpack and a self-congratulatory grin. Morgan Grimes, low rate spy/security expert may not have been the best at comprehensively planning operations, but when it came to thinking on his feet he had few equals.

* * *

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* * *

**Philadelphia Pennsylvania**

**The Four Seasons Hotel**

**One Logan Circle  
(Pool Deck)**

Alex was visibly annoyed when Chuck and Sarah arrived at the pool deck, red faced even, and that the reason why was soon amusingly apparent.

Arching her back to adjust the top half of her bikini, she growled as Chuck and Sarah sought out a deck chair. "That niece of yours is going to grow up to be some sort of madam. She practically had me naked before I knew what was happening."

Standing up from her lounge, Ellie smiled in a mix of sympathy and humor. "I'm sorry Alex. Your swimsuit just looked so nice that I didn't want to tell you that it might be a little fragile for swimming with a toddler. But now you know." Glancing at his sister in law, "you be careful, Sarah. Clara's getting squirreley. "

"Hey!" Called Devon from the pool, "Look who's here!" Bringing Clara to the pool's edge "Clara, look who's here!"

"AsSawah! Unca Chuck!" Clara twittered with glee, her day truly made.

"Okay, we'll be in in a minute," Chuck said as he and Sarah found deck chairs. Their t-shirts, shorts and flip flops were soon enough in two piles on the top of the chair next to Ellie.

"Diving board time!" Chuck announced, looking at his wife. Sarah simply shook her head softly and made her way to the pool's edge. Sitting down near Devon and Clara's position and dipping her feet in the water she feigned apprehension as she asked Clara "Is it really cold?"

"It not cold! It nice!" Clara reassured.

Thus relieved, Sarah pushed herself into the shallow end of the pool, landing gently in the three foot section, and flexing her knees to submerge her head and hair.

"Okay, look at Uncle Chuck!" Devon pointed to the diving board.

Chuck performed a dive with more power than grace and used his momentum and his strong legs to propel himself almost the whole distance of the pool, only coming up for air next to Devon and Clara. "Bwaaaah!" he bellowed as he emerged. Then he cupped his hand and dramatically sent a spigot's worth of water onto his niece. "Splash attack!"

Clara was surprised and squealed as she clutched Devon's neck, but as she was every inch the Woodcomb-/-Bartowski alloy, she immediately fought back, slapping her free arm down into the water and sending back a good deal more water Chuck's way than one would be inclined to expect.

Sarah was delighted at her niece's fiestiness - _That's Ellie's daughter alright_! – and came into join the water fight. "That's right Clara! Let's get him!" Sarah said, coming to Clara's side to send forth a much more powerful wave of water over her husband's head.

Devon slyly handed his daughter off to Sarah and made for the wall of the pool. "You're on your own, bro!"

"What, you're leaving me?" Chuck complained.

"You picked a splash fight with the girls, dude. Not me. I'm Swiss and I'm out of here!"

As the cowardly Devon made his way to the pool wall, more trouble for Chuck came into view. Ellie clearly now had a second wind, and hopped in, with a wicked glint in her eyes- a glint that was targeted at Chuck. Devon's retreat was now looking more and more sensible.

"I've been winning splash fights with this one for more than 30 years!" Ellie declared as she now hopped into the shallow end. "Make sure you splash up from under the water, and not from above. Once he gets water in his nose it's all over!"

Furrowing his brow in faux- anger, Chuck submerged and dove to the counterattack. Plunging down to the pool floor, he caught Ellie's foot with both his hands and swept her legs from under her, and was rewarded with the muffled sound of her surprised shout, and splash.

Then he twisted and turned on his wife, whose maneuverability was hampered by the fact that she was holding Clara. From under the water, he could see the fronts of Sarah's legs trying to pivot to face him, but Chuck easily swam around to a position behind her and slyly pinched her on her bottom. As he broke the surface to come up from behind her he could hear Sarah's scandalized gasp. Chuck then bent his knee, forcing Sarah's knee to bend with it. As she staggered, Chuck wrapped his arms around his niece and plucked her from Sarah's gasp. "Gotcha!" he declared as Clara decided to end hostilities and threw her little arms around her favorite uncle. Both Sarah and Ellie reluctantly agreed to the cease fire.

"Figures" Sarah groused to Ellie. "Chuck taking advantage of the fact that women have a hard time staying mad at him. How much did he get away with growing up anyway?"

"A LOT!" Ellie agreed. "Clara sweetie, you want to play with mommy?"

But the toddler decided to change the subject, keeping her arms around Uncle Chuck's neck, she declared "Unca Chuck hassome!" and reinforced her point by kissing his cheek.

"Awwwww" Chuck smiled, his heart touched by Clara's compliment. "Thank you Clara!" and returned the peck. "And you're very pretty. I've always liked Sleeping Beauty".

Ellie beamed with pride as she explained to Sarah. "Clara learned a new thing a few months ago. Girls are 'pretty', and boys are 'handsome'."

"Oh!" Sarah said, grateful for the translation. As good as she tried to be with her niece, she wasn't yet fluent in toddler, and sometimes Clara's communications sounded a lot like gibberish. "Yes, Clara he's very handsome!"

"How about Aunt Sarah?" Chuck prompted. "What is she?"

Examining her aunt, Clara noticed her bathing suit. "White!" she said.

Sarah gasped in delight and placed a thumb under the strap of her top. "Why yes I am wearing white! Thank you Clara! Even Uncle Chuck didn't notice that this was white. All he said was 'wow' and let his mouth hang open."

AS Ellie laughed at her sister-in-law's teasing, Chuck continued to press. "How about Aunt Sarah? Is she 'hassome?'"

Finally grasping the question, Clara answered "Noooo! AsSawah pwetty!"

"Yeeeeessss.. Vewy pwetty!" Chuck confirmed. Making his way with Clara to the pool deck, he called up to Devon "Hey there, want to hand me the stick?"

Clara was overjoyed that her motor boating game got a bit of refinement. When she held on to the middle of the stick, Chuck, Sarah and Ellie could take turns grasping the sides and towing her around the shallow end of the pool. Then Chuck figured another trick – he could grab and end of the stick, have Clara grasp the other end, and spin himself around in the pool, taking Clara with the spin. This turned out to be a huge success, although Chuck began to regret the dizziness that resulted.

It was just coming up on 4pm when Clara yawned, announcing to all that it was about time for her nap. Ellie immediately scooped up the tot and declared "That might be enough Olympic training for the day. C'mon Clara."

The others also agreed that enough pool time was enough. Alex was already toweled off, dressed in her shorts, and examining her iPhone, smiling as she did so. As Sarah passed by she nudged an elbow at Alex. "Looks like the Cross Fit's been paying off" she said softly. "I'll bet Morgan's thrilled" she said with a somewhat sly smile.

Alex blushed a little. "Yeah, it works. The only downside is that sometimes I have more energy than Morgan does. That's not always convenient, if you know what I mean."

Toweling herself off, Sarah said pointedly "Make. Him. Run. With. You. If you want him to up his stamina. It works."

"Working on it." Alex said. "By the way. Great idea with the book. Chuck'll love it."

"Hmm?" Sarah asked, slightly confused, but then remembering that since Morgan's goal was to keep Alex in the dark of everything proposal related, she quickly adopted her poker face "Oh yes the book. It was probably one of my better ideas. Which book did he get? There were a few possibilities." Mentally, Sarah's mind was racing. Morgan, wherever he was, had clearly called an audible somewhere, and had gotten in touch with Alex – likely to build some sort of cover story as to where he was. It was important that the cover withstand casual scrutiny.

Suspecting subterfuge, Alex clasped the phone to her chest. "He got the book you told him to get …" she was smiling as if she was watching Sarah walk into her trap.

But Sarah refused to be trapped. "There was more than one possibility" she fibbed. "He could have gotten the one at the store by Independence Hall, or he could …"

Suddenly deciding that she didn't have anywhere near enough information to trap a master spy like Sarah, Alex gave up and showed her the phone " … yeah, Independence Hall. It was a good idea. Chuck ought to love it."

Toweled off, Clara announced a new problem to Ellie. "I'm hungwy." For her daughter's benefit, Ellie feigned concern. "Oh no! There's no oven in our hotel suite! We can't cook! What'll we do?"

Devon grabbed the reins from there. "Okay crew. Pizza party. Our room in one hour, Room 716. Alex, make sure you tell Morg when he gets back."

"I'll tell him." Alex said. "He's on the way."

By now, all were dressed, and with that the three women, two men, one toddler, and one teddy bear evacuated the pool deck. As the … … six of them made their way to the elevators, Sarah was suddenly curious as to what the delivery times were for Pappa Johns around here. Whatever they were, food couldn't arrive fast enough.


	7. Deductions, Discoveries, and Revelations

**Chapter 7**

**Deductions, Discoveries and Revelations**

_Sorry for the delay, but the months of August and September were a bit busy for me both professionally and personally. Thank you for everyone who sticks by me._

_It's true that Alex has been a mostly passive character for the majority of this story, but that's about to change. I always thought the show could have done a bit more with her – the flashes of awesomeness she exhibits in Chuck vs the Subway and Chuck vs the Curse made me want to see more, and I was a little annoyed that she was a played-straight damsel in distress in "vs the Bullet Train". There's a clip floating around somewhere that involved a group interview with the cast of Chuck, and Yvonne Strahovski brought up the fact that Mekenna Melvin has been a karate black belt since she was 16 … which is ironic as it means that one of the __**least**__ physically imposed upon characters on the show (as in Alex hardly ever fights with a bad guy) is played by the __**most**__ physically capable actress. We all know who'd win in a Sarah Walker vs Anyone fight, but if any "Chuck" like shenanigans happened in the real world, Mekenna'd be the one kicking the copious amounts of ass, including Sara Lancaster's and Yvonne's if they got in her way! She had a few nice scenes in Chuck vs The Baby chatting with Devon … which was a good bonding moment for the two people who are "on the inside" of Team B … but who, of the insiders, understand the spy world / the Intersect the least. It would have been nice to see her bond with Sarah a little bit – Sarah could always use a second girlfriend other than Ellie, and I always thought that the first few minutes of "Chuck v The Cliffhanger" went slightly OOC with Morgan and Alex in that Morgan rushes with Team B to the hospital … but Alex doesn't._

_Cannon wise we know practically nothing of Morgan's father, but Chuck vs The Isle of Terror suggests that he was given to insulting Morgan, and that there's probably a good reason why Morgan doesn't talk about him much. _

_**Warn**__: Again, a little bit of sexy stuff here, but I turn the camera off before things get started. Well …sort of._

* * *

**Philadelphia Pennsylvania**

**The Four Seasons Hotel**

**One Logan Circle  
Room 716**

Ellie, Devon and Clara's suite consisted of a bedroom and a living area where everyone was gathered, now including Morgan, hungrily anticipating the arrival of dinner. Clara's nap had only lasted an hour or so, and by 5, she too was awake again, and looking forward to pizza.

Getting pizza delivery to the Four Seasons was trickier done than said. Two of the delivery men were already at the hotel making deliveries and had to be told to accelerate their return to the Papa Johns in order to accommodate the large order for 7. Devon ordered a vegetarian pie with no olives for pizza herbivores Sarah and Ellie. The carnivorous Chuck, Morgan, Alex and Devon would go to town on two and half pepperoni pies, while the remaining pie and half was plain for Clara (and for Sir Carmichael, she insisted) and to satisfy any residual munchies, of which there surely would be. Beer and iced tea were also available in generous amounts.

Clara passed the waiting time by announcing a tea party. Ellie, grateful for something to distract Clara from the fact that she was hungry was encouraging. Of course the bulkier parts of Clara's tea set had been left behind in Chicago, such as the table and chairs, but Ellie packed most of the plastic set in a series of Ziploc bags, allowing Clara to set up toddler tea service for four, picnic style. With no tea table, she made use of one of the fluffy white towels from the bathroom, and soon Clara, Sir Carmichael, Chuck and Morgan were arrayed around it.

Sarah and Alex sat at a small table by the window, splitting their attention between the view out the window of Logan Square, the Cathedral and part of the Ben Franklin Parkway … and the adorable, endearing view of their guys enjoying Clara's hospitality.

The boys were debating amongst themselves which Disney movie featured a tea party, a debate Clara decidedly ended by informing that it was "Alwis an Wonerlan" … not quite gauging the subtle difference between "in" and "and". Sarah took in the view with quiet delight while noticing Alex staring at Morgan, who had just stumbled onto a point.

"Okay," Morgan said "... So Alice and Wonderland had the tea party. But think about it – all the Disney princesses' movies like _Snow White_, _Cinderella_ and _Sleeping Beauty_ all end with the happy couple going back to the castle, right? There had to have been tea parties back at the castle, right? What good's the castle without tea parties? Even Cinderella served tea to her wicked stepmother- and that's just at the house she grew up in. I think tea parties were in almost all the movies. They were just off screen."

"I don't think they had tea parties in the _Jungle Book_, Morgan." Chuck. "Probably not _Lady and the Tramp_, either."

Clara, all but in expert in most of the Disney movies, shook her head. "Nooooooo". After all, everyone knew that Lady and Tramp preferred spaghetti.

"How about Pocahontas? There were lots of British in that movie, and we know the brits love themselves some tea! You can't tell me there weren't tea parties going on there. " Morgan continued.

Unseen by Alex, Ellie snuck up from behind and noted her staring at Morgan. With an amused and knowing look she challenged "First Molly, then Clara, hmm Alex? Why don't you just grab him, drag him down to the hotel room and have your way with him. You can come back once you've gotten it out of your system."

Scandalized, Alex began to blush severely, much to both Sarah and Ellie's amusement. Sarah chuckled, at which Ellie turned her head to her. "Yeah, laugh it up, blondie, like you're doing much better over there."

"Oh, I'm not pretending to" Sarah allowed. Taking pity on Alex's discomfort, she said. "It's okay, Alex. Chuck's never looked hotter to me, either then when he was playing with Molly or now when he plays with Clara. Sometimes they video chat from LA to Chicago and he plays peek-a-boo with Clara. Yeah it's a turn on."

"Some sort of maternal thing?" Alex supposed.

"It's anthropology 101." Ellie confirmed. "Guys who are good with babies and toddlers show off their daddy skills … and it's hot for us girls to watch. It's Mother Nature trying to make mommies out of all of us. It's kind of fun if you think about how half a million years ago our great great great cave grandmothers probably got hot and bothered at the sight of our great great great cave grandfathers playing with their little cave-babies."

"Does that… happen to you when you watch Devon play with her?" Alex whispered, somewhat shy about asking an intimate detail.

"_All … the … time_." Ellie affirmed.

Across the room, Morgan pretended to take a big swig of tea, and then popped his lips quickly "ooohh! Hot hot hot!"

All three women smiled at this. Morgan Grimes was a natural born clown, and at only three years old, Clara was an easy audience to amuse. It was an entertainment match made in heaven.

"I know Morgan's been acting a little strange today, but I guess you'll have to forgive him, hmm?" Ellie said.

Alex's face fell, and she screwed her eyebrows in thought. But before very long she allowed a smile to cross her face and agreed "Hmmm… I guess so."

* * *

**Tinicum, Pennsylvania**

**Philadelphia International Airport**

Casey lounged about in at the International terminal of the airport, somewhat unimpressed in the amenities available for people picking up loved ones from the airport. Fitting for a master spy, Gertude's flight was right on time, and Casey waited patiently at the foot of the escalators, just behind two or three chauffeurs with their classic signs showing someone's name. The erstwhile occupants of Global AviRoutes Flight 47 soon shambled into view at the top of the escalators, including Gertude.

John Casey would be the first to admit that he wasn't the easiest man in the world to live with, work with, have lunch with, ask a favor of, or essentially do anything with. This resulted in an exceptionally small number of women who had wanted to get all that close to him, and fewer still who actually succeeded in doing so once they decided to try. The world of the clandestine services simply was not a healthy environment in which to place a healthy relationship. Not every man in the spy business was like Bartowski – one who was never supposed to be one, became one, and found it to be the best thing that ever happened to his love life, in a roundabout way. It was safe to say that only Bartowski was like Bartowski.

Similarly, few-to-no women in the spy world were like Sarah, exceptionally competent in the skills department , but secretly loathing they spy life once it had been contrasted with the way normal folk live, and imagining herself to be a normal woman at heart. It was equally safe to say that only Sarah (Walker) Bartowski was like Sarah (Walker) Bartowski.

Casey wasn't one to talk much of his own feelings, and so it was just as well that he never had to put into words – even to himself- what exactly he and Gertrude had together. They just understood each other – _got_ each other … and that was that.

Gertrude arrived from the top of the concourse, found the downward escalator and soon had her arms around Casey's neck. "Been thinking of you, John"

"Hey." Casey acknowledged. "Been thinking of you too."

Twenty minutes later, collecting Gertrude's bag from baggage claim, the pair made their way to the airport's access road, where a never ending parade of shuttle busses from the various hotels and car rental places and SEPTA busses swooped in to claim their humans before whisking them away.

"I was going to wait for a bus to the Clarion." Casey informed with a squeeze.

"Mmmm" Gertrude smiled. If there was one thing Casey needed encouragement to do, it was indulging himself. "Well then, Gertrude said. "There's a plan that'll have to change. I have a room at the Four Seasons, which means that you do too. We'll wait for the Avis shuttle, get my car, go to the Clarion and get your things, then head downtown.

"Sounds good". Casey said. His right arm was occupied with Gertrude's bag, so he used his left arm to give her a discrete squeeze around her waist. "You're coming at a good time. Grimes is going to propose to Alex. Soon. Like tomorrow. Here in Philly."

"And she'll accept?" Gertrude asked.

"Oh yes." He gave Gertrude a teasing nudge. "You'll have to work on figuring out the Russian version of "Morgan"

"Mmmm I'll have to work on it. What's his father's name?"

"That I don't know. From what I've heard of him though he wasn't much of a bargain."

"I'll figure something out." Gertrude said.

Before long the Avis shuttle bus pulled up to the International terminal, and as luck would have it, there were seats enough for both of them to sit down. As the bus proceeded to the next terminal, Gertrude teased. "So what you're telling me is that by the end of this trip I'll be the only woman there without a ring on her finger." She tilted her head slightly to try to catch Casey's peripheral.

Yet Casey simply deadpanned and deflected. "Well that depends. Does Clara count?"

xx

* * *

**Philadelphia Pennsylvania**

**The Four Seasons Hotel**

**One Logan Circle  
Room 716**

_"Action News! The Delaware Valley's leading news program! With Jim Gardner, Duces Rodgers, and Cecily Tynan!"_

"Oh here we go!" Devon announced. "Parade times and weather!"

Everyone in the hotel suite cast various amounts of attention towards the TV – the least of them being Chuck, Morgan and Clara as they were engaged in a debate over the scariest Disney villain ever. Happily for the three they each had family members around to catch them up on any important details they'd miss.

"Thursday night." The anchorman began "and the mayor brings his case for free clinics to city council, and a pair of jewelry store bandits get a lot more than they bargained for in Old City. But the Big Story on Action News tonight is that it is all systems go for the Welcome America Fourth of July Parade tomorrow …"

Sarah tensed. The news was about to blow the lid off of their little adventure at the jewelry store today. Quickly, she remembered that Chuck and she had a perfectly acceptable cover story – one that even happened to be true. They'd be able to admit they were at the store to pick up a necklace for her without having to admit to Alex the true purpose for the visit. She relaxed slightly.

The news continued with important details about the parade, which was literally going to process right outside their hotel. Morgan began paying attention when the map of the tour route came up and noted that the plaza across from the Franklin Institute was featured in _National Treasure_ and that the Art Museum steps, where the parade would end, were of course the iconic stairs seen in _Rocky_. He designated these as stops 7 and 8 on the See Philadelphia by Accident tour.

The newscaster changed the story- "An early afternoon attempted robbery in Old City …"

"Um, Chuck …" Sarah called over, warning. Everyone was about to learn of their exploit, and she wanted her husband to make ready to back up her cover story.

" … ended with the arrest of two men suspected in the robberies of several jewelry stores in the area. You can see the dramatic surveillance footage of the moment things to wrong for the bandits when he pulls a gun on the sales clerk and the male customer – when suddenly the customer's wife turns the tables on the robber by bringing out her own gun. A struggle ensued and the gunman – plus his accomplice who arrived on scene later – were, at the end of it both taken into custody."

As the anchorman narrated, the footage played, with Chuck the sales lady and the gunman in the upper right hand side of the screen, while Sarah was in the lower right side of the screen, examining the necklace section.

All sets of eyes shifted from Chuck and Sarah and back again. Ellie was dumbfounded, her mouth agape. "You two were in a robbery?!"

"A little bit." Chuck admitted.

"Nobody got hurt!" Sarah said.

"Looks like that robber came close to getting his head blown off!" Devon said.

"He came close" Sarah admitted, allowing a small amount of ice water into her voice. "Chuck was able to take him down the easier way."

"Awesome." Devon grinned, quite impressed.

"Guys, that's amazing!" Morgan contributed, as if this was the first he'd learned about this episode. Chuck was immediately concerned, as he never thought that Morgan's faux surprised voice was all that believable. Happily he redeemed himself by granting Sarah a segue. "What was at the jewelry store? I thought Sarah already owned half the pretty bracelets in the world."

"I don't have that many!" Sarah protested, wiggling her arm and displaying her ever present Bartowski bracelet that Chuck had given her several Christmases ago. "And … it was a necklace that we got this time. Chuck and I are doing Comic-Con again in a few weeks, and I'm augmenting my Princess Ardala costume. I suddenly felt the need for something shiny around my neck … so we decided to walk into the unluckiest jewelry store in the world." To support her story – and possibly deflect any further questions on what Chuck and she were doing at the jewelry store – Sarah grabbed her phone and sent it around to Devon, the photo function set on a picture of actress Pamela Hensley sporting her iconic outfit.

"Woah!" Devon said, impressed. "and who is this again?"

"Princess Ardala" Ellie supplied. "She's one of Buck Rogers' major villains. Apparently Sarah's going to be the bad girl at Comic-Con. I thought you two had decided on Wilma."

"Well, we did, but that's before I actually saw the series." Sarah informed. "Wilma was the good girl, yeah … but Ardala definitely knew her way around fashion a little bit better."

"Apparently" Devon said, furrowing his brow and squinting at Sarah's phone, still looking at the picture.

After a brief pause, Ellie pretended to be offended by Devon's admiration of the picture. "Okay! That's enough!" she said in faux annoyance.

"What?" Devon protested innocently. "I was just seeing if she was wearing a necklace!"

"She's not" Both Chuck and Morgan said this in unison, each of them quite familiar with the photo in question. The nerd boys' acquaintance with the sci-fi/ fantasy queen drew grins from both Ellie and Sarah … and typically would have from Alex as well, were it not for the fact that Alex's attention was diverted elsewhere – towards her own smartphone, not Sarah's .

The TV news had long since moved on and changed stories to an upcoming trade the Phillies were planning, but like all news agencies, WPVI Channel 6 Action News had a website where the day's major stories were available for everyone to peruse at leisure. Sure enough, Chuck and Sarah's jewelry heist prevention was the second or third story down the list.

Alex regarded the video from the news story with knit brows. All the characters were in place. There was Sarah off by herself over by the necklaces, and there was Chuck the sales lady and the thug over by another part of the store. The video was too grainy to make out details like what Chuck had been shopping for, but still Alex thought that something about the setup struck her as odd …._Wait a minute!_

Before very long there was a knock at the door. Devon answered. "John! Gertrude! C'mon in"

"Heard this was the place to get squared away for tomorrow" Casey said as he and Gertrude entered.

"You heard right!" Devon beamed. "Pizza's on the way, and we've probably got more than we need."

"Dad! Gertrude!" Alex said, delighted. She approached for hugs from Casey and Verbanski, and as she did, Casey stole a glance at his daughter's left hand. It was bare, so he hadn't missed much.

"You need to tell me all about Independence Hall!" Alex demanded "I tried to get some details from Chuck, but apparently the only woman he's paying attention to right now" he nodded over to the tea party "Is less than 3 feet tall".

"Sure", Casey agreed.

Casey Alex and Gertrude occupied a corner of the room away from Clara's tea party, which had been taking a turn for the obscure. Clara shifted the topic to My Little Pony, something neither Chuck nor Morgan were conversant in.

Ellie sat next to her sister in law, watching Sarah grin as they beheld the charming and comical sight of Chuck and Morgan trying to ask pertinent questions about small, colorful ponies.

"You know," Ellie began softly. "Chuck's going to make a great dad … And you make being an aunt look like so much fun, I'd love to give it a try."

Her reverie interrupted, Sarah's reaction was slightly fumbled. A slight blush crept up her neck and her attempts at nonchalance were not her best work. "Ummm… yeah!" She said as she tried to play things cool. "Yeah he will, … someday."

"Mmmm. Someday..." Ellie repeated, keeping her voice low so that only Sarah could hear. "Perhaps someday … sooner than we all think?"

Sarah's reaction was close to panic and her eyes flew wide at her sister in law's perception. Her mouth gaped open in shock for just a bit, before quickly clamping down in resolution. Her eyes locked with Ellie's and could see her face beam with delight. Despite the tears of joy that threatened to fill her eyes, she was partially successful in adopting a no-nonsense tone. "Ellie!" She softly hissed … But Ellie's face informed her that her glee was not to be easily denied. "Ellie" Sarah repeated, with a hint of beseeching now put into her voice. "You can't tell anyone yet! Not even Devon! I found out about two weeks ago. I'm only about five or six weeks along, and I've read that you're supposed to wait for twelve to tell anybody. But also Chuck and I decided that this was Morgan's weekend to propose to Alex, and we're not going to steal the light from them- at least not until after Alex says yes."

Keeping her voice soft and quiet, Ellie reassured. "Don't worry. Secret's safe. It's definitely not the only secret we're keeping this weekend." Her words gave comfort, but the grin on her face caused doubt in Sarah's mind that she'd be able to sit on her new secret as well as she imagined. A happy Ellie had a way of lighting up whatever room she was in, and this hotel room, from Sarah's perspective, was looking very bright indeed.

"Ellie … how did you know?" Sarah whispered softly.

"Hmm" Ellie began with a grin "I was a little suspicious … say maybe 30% when you didn't go off of the diving board today, but Chuck did. Then I was a little more curious … maybe up to 50% when you picked iced tea over a beer. And you haven't been able to take your eyes off of Chuck showing off his papa bear skills all night long…"

"Well yeah, but that's any time Chuck plays with Clara or does anything with Molly …"

"… and of course if I hadn't known already, you just confirmed it."

Sarah heaved a slight sigh. Chuck's loving and doting sister was one of the reasons why a normal life with Chuck had always been so appealing to her. Ellie had a personality that made everyone around her at ease. Unfortunately for anyone who wanted to keep a secret from Ellie, one being at ease with her was synonymous to "letting one's guard down", a status upon which Ellie could pounce.

And Sarah had just gotten pounced. "Ellie, can we please wait until later to talk about this – we need to get those two engaged first!" Sarah pleaded through her smile.

"Sure!" Ellie whispered. "I just want to know one thing – Chuck's already in overprotective daddy-to-be mode, isn't he?"

"_Oh-my-God-yes!_" Sarah affirmed with a hissing whisper. "First he assumed I was joking about the Ardala costume, but since I shouldn't really start showing for another six weeks, and Comic-Con's in four, me and my tummy should come in under the wire. " At this, Ellie stared off to the wall behind her, silently doing the math, and shrugged in agreement. "Then I needed to talk to Morgan before he proposed, so I did the hand off to him in the subway, and he was all, 'oh, honey I can walk over to the other platform for you'." Sarah shook her head in mild annoyance. "He's only going to get worse as this goes on."

Ellie silently nodded in delight. "Yeah. Give him fair warning before you give into the temptation to put him through the wall. When I was pregnant with Clara, Devon nearly didn't survive the experience. Not because he was stressing, but because he was bugging me and I almost ended him on several occasions."

Devon was concentrating on his laptop, wondering about the ideal perches for tomorrow's parade, and was not listening to Sara and Ellie's baby talk, Clara educating Chuck and Morgan on My Little Pony, or Casey telling Alex and Gertrude about Independence Hall. Next to his laptop was his cell, which gave a welcome chirp.

"Yo! …. Cool! Be right down!" he said. Hanging up he announced in triumph "Pizza's here!"

"Yay!" Clara cheered, overhearing.

"Oh, Chuck and I will carry up." Sara volunteered.

As Chuck got ready to excuse himself from Clara's tea party, Alex intervened. "Actually – I'll help Sarah carry!" she announced. At Chuck's surprised expression, she said "Sorry Chuck, I need to borrow Sarah for just a minute".

Sarah trailed Alex out the door, giving a shrug that said she didn't know what was up either. As Morgan and Chuck watched their ladies depart, they shared a slightly worried glance.

Devon noticed and said "Yeah. Whatever it is, I doubt it's good" he said with a teasing grin.

Chuck decided to take advantage of Alex being gone, and brought out his iPhone - and brought up a picture of the selfie that he and Sarah had taken in Love Park. "This place" he began "is just a few blocks down the Parkway."

" Wow." Morgan said. "That might be a winner. "

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

As the elevator to the 7th floor dinged, Alex went in first. When the doors shut and they had the car to themselves, Alex spoke up. She had a big smile as she did so, so Sarah wasn't worried. "I wanted to ask you something, but it's a little personal, so I wanted it to be just us."

"Okay," Sarah said, "sure."

"You _really_ like dressing up for Chuck, don't you?" Alex said with an amused look.

Sarah blushed slightly, but quickly and eagerly nodded. "I do. I always have, even before we were really together. The job I used to have a lot of times involved me dressing up in really sleazy, skimpy outfits to get the attentions of some of the most awful men in the world, right before they'd get arrested or shot. I've always liked doing it for Chuck. Chuck was always different in the way he looked at me. He has been since day one… so yeah … I really enjoy getting his attention and showing off like that." A pause with a knowing smile. "You know what that's like. I'm not so good with movies, but Chuck said your bathing suit was a direct homage to Pheobe Cates, whoever that is."

Alex grinned and nodded "It's what I was going for."

"It's funny – when the wrong guy stares at you – and most of them are wrong guys-, it's either something you can ignore or is creepy or sleazy, but when it's the _right_ guy…"

" … it can be a lot of fun becoming the center of his attention and showing off. And you hope he never ever stops staring at you" Alex nodded. "Which actually kind of brings me to my follow up."

"Hmm?" Sarah wondered.

"If you just brought a brand new bikini, and Chuck seemed to appreciate it a little bit … but then quickly got distracted by something else, wouldn't that be a tip-off that he was acting strangely?" Alex held her eye contact firm, and Sarah was now fully aware that she was being probed by a suspicious Alex for information.

The small internal alarm that now went off inside Sarah was an old and reliable friend. It had alerted her on many an occasion when her cover was in danger of being blown, or a mission was in other danger of heading south. The stakes here weren't as life-or-death of course, but the alarming feeling that an opponent or mark was becoming suspicious was otherwise just the same. Sarah deployed two of her reliable standbys, misdirection and playing the innocent, despite the fact that it was hard for her to believe that she was in danger of losing her second secret in an hour. "Well," she began. "That might depend on the circumstance. When Chuck and I went on our honeymoon, I packed an awful lot of … things I was sure were going to keep his attention on me - and only on me. But sure enough, he couldn't keep his nose out of the brochures and after a few days wanted to check out the whale watching tours and the volcanos. I guess that's just what happens when you're with a nerd."

The elevator dinged again, and in the lobby, Sarah and Alex greeted the pizza guy. Two minutes later, with two pies per person in hand they again had the elevator car to themselves as it ascended back to the seventh floor. "Anyway, as I was saying" Sarah said "It probably doesn't mean that Morgan's acting strangely, at least not by Morgan standards."

"Uh-huh," Alex said, unconvinced. "Whale watching and volcanoes after a few days in Hawaii vs going downtown shopping … for a book that he could have found in LA … after less than an hour with me in my new bathing suit. Somehow I don't think these two examples measure up."

Sarah tried to think up a retort, but she had to admit that Alex's logic was sound – sound enough that she couldn't hand wave it away. The elevator dinged for the 7th floor and she still hadn't come up with a rejoinder that made sense to her. Alex got off first, and over her shoulder threw her observation. "_And_ it just so happened to be at the same time you got held up at the jewelry store."

That froze Sarah in her tracks- enough so that the elevator door threatened to close on her before she picked up a step and joined Alex in the hall.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Pizzas were devoured, iced tea and beer were consumed, and plans were made. Since the parade didn't start until noon-ish, Ellie and Sarah would make a spa morning of it at the Four Seasons' in house Eden Indulgence. Gertrude and Casey would walk around Philly and take in a few sights in the morning. Devon would hit the weight room, Morgan would surely sleep in, and Chuck would more than likely spit his time between sleeping in, and babysitting Clara. Sir Carmichael would do whatever Clara would do. All units would rendezvous to view the parade and fireworks just north of Logan Square, a spot close enough to the action where they could see everything, but close enough to the hotel where they could retreat to it, should Clara have the need. It was after all, her first parade, and tomorrow promised to be hot and humid.

Morgan suggested a movie fest after dinner, and out came _National Treasure_ onto Morgan's laptop.

Gertrude and Casey had little interest in the movie, and excused themselves. Alex followed, promising to be right back.

Alex wasted no time, as soon as they were about 10 feet from the closed door of Room 716, announced "Dad, Gertrude … I think Morgan's getting ready to propose".

As when dealing with Sarah just an hour before, Alex knew she was confronted with two who were talented in spycraft, so she made sure her phone was out and ready. Her dad, predictably enough, applied his best poker face. "What makes you think so?" he asked.

"Because I don't think Chuck and Sarah went to the jewelry store just for themselves. See the news story?" She brandished her phone, and it was called up to WPVI's news site. Sure enough, there was the still from the jewelry store heist, with Chuck, the robber and the sales clerk in one section of the store, and Sarah off to the right side of the store.

"Alex," Casey defended "Sarah, as you might have noticed, has her taste in bling. And ever since she and Chuck became filthy rich, Chuck can dote on her anytime he wants."

"All true." Alex said, smiling and refusing to be distracted. "But here's the thing. See the video footage? Sarah's off to the side of the store shopping for her necklace. But Chuck's over here by the sales lady – as if he's already buying something or picking something up – when the robber starts robbing. How come those two aren't together? What's Chuck doing?"

"How would I know?" Casey protested softly. "For all we know, Chuck's asking how their security is, drumming up business for Carmichael Industries."

"That _is_ something Chuck would do," Gertrude added, helping with the cover, "If there's one thing about Chuck, he's a chatterbox. And a networker."

But Alex was scarcely paying attention to Gertrude's words. Her eyes gleamed as she watched her father's hands. Casey had his arms folded, and his ring and middle finger crossed – a sure sign that he was slightly nervous about something or other. Her mother had pointed out to her that it was a habit she had herself, one that was evidently inherited through her father. Alex was now more convinced than ever that she was on the right track.

"Hmmmm." Alex said. "add on the fact that right after this happened Morgan left me at the pool with the Woodcombs … … with me in my brand-new bikini. Now daddy, I'll spare you the pictures," Casey, closed his eyes in a mixture of anguish and relief "but let's just say that a boyfriend should _not_ do that to his girlfriend when she's wearing something new like that – and I'm pretty sure Gertrude will back me up on that."

Gertrude gave a wan smile to Casey signaling that she was a bit stuck for a way to diffuse Alex's suspicions.

"… And the whole reason why he abandoned his new-swimsuit wearing girlfriend? " Alex continued, "…ostensibly so he could go downtown and buy a _book_ for Chuck- because books are so hard to find in California."

Casey was torn between disappointment and pride. He had thought Morgan's plot to surprise his Alex was a fairly good one – and that was an evaluation that he hasn't just given out. But Alex was seeing through it pretty handily, despite the planning. Despite the time and effort that Grimes, Bartowski and Bartowski at put into pulling the wool over her eyes, they should have done more. It was, after all, his clever daughter they'd been trying to surprise.

Still Casey had been in the business for a long time, and knew how to stick to a cover even when confronted. "Sooo. Grimes is acting kind of strange. Do you think that tells you anything specific? Or is it Grimes being Grimes? He's a good guy. He's grown on me despite himself. But I can't pin down what qualifies as weird behavior for him."

Alex kept a level stare with her father, trying hard not to crack a smile. Instinctively she knew she was on the right track, because her father's guard was clearly up. But since his guard _was_ up, she knew it'd be tough to wrest any further details from him. "Something's up with Morgan daddy. I think it's that he's about to propose, and I'm beginning to think that you're in on it too."

"Well if I am, then I'd say you've got a heck of a problem, lady." Casey said with a slight grin. "Because I'm pretty good at keeping a secret when I want to."

"Ah-ha!" Alex said in triumph. "So you admit to being in on it."

"No." Casey said deliberately. "I said _if I were_, you'd have a heck of a problem on your hands in finding out more from me. Good night honey"

Stymied for the moment, Alex bit her lip in frustration as she watched her father put his arm around Gertrude, and the couple made their way to the elevator. So far she'd heard nothing to dissuade her from her theory … and that enough was encouragement that she was right, but her quest to collect any details was again colliding with a formidable brick wall. Slightly grouchy, she made her way back to room 716.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Inside, the group was about 10 minutes into _National Treasure_, much to Clara's boredom. Clutching Sir Carmichael, the toddler explored the hotel room, fascinated by the ice bucket, and the oddly shaped clothes hangers, and what to her was a very weird looking door next to the two beds in the sleeping area.

"Cah-set!" she chirped, convinced she had correctly identified the door. After all, everyone knew that doors in bedrooms led to either bathrooms or closets.

"Actually, no sweetie." Ellie informed, appearing at her side. "Do you know what's behind that door? Another door!" She said with an excited, revealing gasp. "And do you know what's behind that second door?"

Spellbound, Clara shook her head.

"Aunt Sarah and Uncle Chuck's room! This is a special hotel with special rooms called connector rooms!"

"Ohhhh!" Clara said.

Amused by the ease at which Clara was impressed, and not really enthralled by a movie in which the security of the US National Archives was so easily and decisively breached, Sarah decided to illustrate. Clasping her key card, she exited room 716 and let herself into her and Chuck's room, 714. Finding the connector door by her own and Chuck's bed, she opened the first of the two doors and then knocked politely on the second one.

As if admitting a house guest, Ellie opened the door that Clara was mesmerized by, revealing Sarah in her room. Both women took delight in how impressed Clara was at this innovation.

Soon enough he movie was wrapping up, and Clara was getting ready for bed, her bivouac for the night being the second of the two queen sized beds in the bedroom. Clara was enthralled to have such a huge bed all to herself.

Morgan and Alex were on the couch, with Alex's head in Morgan's lap, watching the movie, and Sarah and Chuck cuddled in the corner. Sarah squeezed Chuck's hand, her habitual signal that she was ready to leave the party and retire to bed. A kiss on Chuck's neck further informed him that she was ready to go to _bed_ soon, but not ready to go to _sleep_, at least not right away.

But their escape was not yet to be. As Chuck got up to begin to say goodnight to Clara, his niece presented him with a small storybook, her very favorite, _Sleeping Beauty_. With a helpless smile towards Sarah, Chuck sat down next to his tucked-in niece, and began to read. Devon and Ellie sat down on their own bed to watch Chuck take up his role as uncle, both of them watching intently. Both parents knew the book cover to cover, but both had their own styles of reading, and Chuck brought in a third. Even Clara knew this, and was insistent on finding out what fresh spin her uncle could bring to the familiar story. Sarah could only grin widely as her husband was expertly dragooned into story time. Clearly she wasn't the only female in the world Chuck found it difficult-to-impossible to say 'no' to.

Alex and Morgan both decided to excuse themselves without ceremony as _National Treasure_ ended. As she got up, she felt the phone in her pocket vibrate. They made it to the elevator before Alex decided to check out the message. When she did, she saw that it came from "Unknown", and the message said

**Alexa Ivanovna - Meet me at the ice machine on the 3****rd**** floor. 5 minutes, don't be late.**

Alex was perplexed. It was clearly a message from Gertrude – who as far as she was knew didn't even have her number. _Of course … spy._

"Huh" Alex said. "It's my dad" she fibbed. "He wants to see me for a sec. Tell you what, you go in, honey. I'll get off on the third floor, see what he wants, and then I'll be right along."

They parted ways as the elevator dinged on the third floor, Alex looking at her iPhone. It had only been a few minutes since getting the text message, so she was good for time, even though the ice machine turned out to be some distance from the elevators.

As she approached, she was greeted by the sight of a white terrycloth robe-clad Gertrude Verbanski. Alex's mouth hung open, flustered to the point of blushing. Although it was true that Gertrude was completely decent – her thick fluffy bathrobe completely covered her from neck to well below her knees, - it was also true that the fluffy robe's very presence clearly telegraphed the activities that Gertrude and Alex's dad were currently taking a break from. Her soft, satiated smile, and lingering perspiration on her forehead told identical tales, as did the slight flush on her skin.

Alex of course knew the look well- she'd worn it herself many a pleasant morning with Morgan, and in the brief time she had dated Morgan while he was roommates with Chuck, she'd seen Sarah … and Chuck … with similar glows.

It was all a trifle more informative than Alex really wanted, and she stammered through her embarrassed blush, "Gertrude, I'm clearly interrupting a little bit of quality time between you and my dad. This can wait for tomorrow, if you want."

Gertrude gave a soft scoff, amused that any daughter of John Casey's could so easily be brought to blush. "Nonsense. I know you think the world of your father, Alex my dear… but every man needs a break every now and then."

Alex winced as Gertrude filled the ice bucket from her and Casey's room. That task accomplished, she turned her attention back to Alex. "Now then. I've been thinking about what you've said. You suspect that Morgan is going to propose to you and that your father, Sarah and Chuck are in on it."

Alex sighed a bit. "Yeah … it's one of those really strong suspicions … like how you know it's going to rain tomorrow, but you really don't have any proof of it?"

"And I take it that you're too curious or proactive to simply let him have his way with you on this?"

Alex grinned. "Yeah…. Pretty much. I should probably feel guilty trying spoil a surprise that he's clearly working hard on … but once I know there's a riddle or a puzzle in the room, I can't stop until I figured it out. There's also this thing where I really don't like surprises. It feels so …"

"…. Like someone else is taking control away from you, and simply assigning you a reactive role."

"Yeah!" Alex agreed enthusiastically. Although Gertrude could come across as icy cold, and with a strong streak of brutality, Alex was beginning to admire her 'no BS' way of getting to the bottom of things.

"It's common among us women who took care of themselves a lot while growing up. No man, even the ones we choose to love, have any business demanding that we simply accept their plans without comment. It's one of the reasons your father and I get along so well, you see. He knows better than to try to control me." Gertrude said with a small smile. "Now as for _your_ case … what do you know, and what do you _think_ you know?"

"Okay" Alex began, mentally organizing her facts and suspicions. "I _know_ that I can usually keep Morgan's attention on me anytime I buy a cute new outfit, and that him abandoning me in the middle of the day in order to buy a stupid book, meant that something serious was pulling him away. Not to sound full of myself, but that's not my Morgan at all."

Gertrude smiled and nodded in agreement. "That's called 'intimate intel'. Keep going."

Biting her lip, Alex continued thinking aloud. "I _know_ that he left me somewhere right after Chuck and Sarah got held up at the jewelry store. I _think_ I know that Chuck and Sarah weren't just there to shop for themselves – Sarah was in one part of the store, Chuck was in the other part, doing something else. _If_ that something else was picking up a ring for Morgan, that could make sense – Jolly Good Gemstones has branches all over the country. Morgan could have shopped in L.A. and had the ring sent here to Philly."

"Careful now, you're starting to speculate." Gertrude warned.

"Okay, back to the facts. Morgan's acting strange … at the same time Chuck and Sarah are at a jewelry store, not acting like they're just there for a necklace. … …. Mmmmmm." Alex shook her head in frustration. "That's all I know for sure. I've already talked to Sarah, and you saw me talk to my dad." Alex sighed. "I guess it's really hard to interrogate two spies that like you and want to see you surprised."

"Hmm." Gertrude said, her tone suggesting that Alex had missed a line of thought. "Sarah… your father. And with that have you tapped out all your possible sources of information?"

"I'm not sure Devon even knows anything at all, and I don't think Ellie does either." Alex shook her head.

"I wasn't talking about them. Keep thinking. He's right there in front of you."

"Who ? …. _Chuck_?" Alex asked incredulously, as if the possibility was too obvious to be taken seriously. "Of course he's in on it, he's Morgan's best friend! He knows every single secret Morgan's had since they were six! Chuck's not going to tell me anything. He probably wants to see me surprised as badly as Morgan does. I swear those two are so close I have nightmares about them running away together! "

"Doesn't mean you can't get intel from him." Gertrude said.

"Are you serious? Gertrude, Chuck and Sarah -they might be a better spy couple then you and my dad! Sarah told Chuck the minute she had him alone that I'm getting suspicious. She had to have. If I've tipped my hand to Sarah, I've tipped my hand to Chuck."

"Chuck and Sarah _are_ a better spy couple then your dad and I are. Your dad and I reinforce each other. Chuck and Sarah complement each other. That's their strength, and it's rare. But if you separate them, it's their weakness. They both have flanks in the air when they're apart. Sarah is completely without any intel that requires an encrypted computer, and you can confuse her with basic cryptography that uses any pop culture reference. Heart-to-heart discussions are also not her forte. She needs Chuck for that."

"… and Sarah's the better natural fighter and tactician than Chuck is, and is naturally much more suspicious. _He_ needs _her_ for that." Alex concluded. Then she shook her head. "But I'm not trying to fight Chuck. How does this weakness help me out?"

"Apparently Chuck has other weaknesses too – and like a lot of weaknesses, it comes as the flip side to one of his strengths." Gertrude said. "One of Chuck's strengths is that he's very good at working with women, and not just ones named 'Sarah'. Apparently he had most of his macho streak removed early on. That's a bit of a rarity in the spy world. He doesn't feel the need to take command in a room full of women, and apparently had no problem recognizing Sarah as a handler or Beckman as his general. Some men need to be trained and educated to see women as equals or superiors. Chuck was raised to see us as equals."

"Well, yeah. You've met his sister. Ellie practically raised him."

"Exactly. Now onto how that's a weakness. Your dad told me a little story last summer when we were in Reykjavik…"

"Reykjavik?" Alex asked.

"Yeah we were there on a job and …."

"Iceland does espionage?"

"You'd be surprised. Anyway, you're dad's story goes that shortly before Chuck and Sarah were married, the three of them were involved in some sort of special project. Four spies were brought into Castle … and it turns out that one of them was sent there to blow Castle up. Who of the four could it be? Of the four, the woman, Josie, had a reputation for manipulating men in order to get what she wanted. Even knowing that reputation, Chuck was still vulnerable to her when she turned on the waterworks – so much so that he needed to rely on Sarah to conduct the interrogation. The moral of this little story is that Chuck Bartowski is great at working _with_ women. He's not so good at working _against_ them. And that could be a big point in your favor."

"Huh." Alex thought ..."That could work. I just confront Chuck and stare him down." Then she shook her head. "Wait, nope. Like you said, if Sarah's anywhere near him, she'll pour cold water on me, and shut down the conversation. If Chuck and Sarah are ever weak when they're apart, it's because they're hardly ever apart!"

Gertrude tucked in her ice bucket, and felt around the pocket of her robe for her key card. AS she turned to leave." Maybe not as hard as you think. Do you think Chuck looks like the type to go with Ellie and Sarah to the spa?"

Watching Gertrude leave, Alex felt a comforting, confident smile curl up her lips.

* * *

**Philadelphia Pennsylvania**

**The Four Seasons Hotel**

**One Logan Circle  
Room 714**

"Us being on the news hurt the surprise. But I think Morgan can still pull it off if he's fast and moves tomorrow." Sarah said to her own reflection. She cast a glance over towards her husband, in another part of the mirror. "And as far as secrets coming out … Ellie knows." Sarah said, hiking up her t-shirt up to expose her midriff. She ran and drummed her fingers down along her abdomen, and reexamined herself in the mirror. Sure enough, there was no telltale sign of what was going on inside her, and wouldn't be for some time, as little Stephen James or Jennifer Emma was presently about the size of a sesame seed found atop a Wendy's Baconator. _Too early to guess if (s)he's got mommy's or daddy's eyes_.

"Huh…" Chuck said from the bed, fluffing out the pillows. "That figures. What does that do to the 'don't-tell-anybody-anything-until-week-twelve' rule?"

"Well I don't know, honey. This is a first time for me, too."

Chuck laughed a little bit. "I guess Ellie would be the one to go to for advice on this. By the way – how'd she find out?"

"Apparently I gave off a few hints." Sarah grumbled. "I think my not going off the diving board was the clincher. She pretty much came right out and asked me. I was taken by surprise and didn't recover. Some spy." Sarah pivoted 180 degrees to observe her tummy. It was as tight and as magnificent as ever from this angle too. _That'll change_ she thought as she pouted her lips in protest.

"Ellie knows how to talk to spies. She's gotten good at it. Besides, isn't that what we call 'intimate intel'? Who besides me knows you better than her now?"

Sarah gave a proud glance at her husband. She could hardly believe that just seven years ago the only spycraft and vocabulary he knew were the things that came from a Hollywood writer's office. Now he was fully conversant- to an expert level in the language of espionage. She went back to the mirror.

Chuck knew better than to ask Sarah to come to bed – her self-inspections had been a new almost nightly ritual ever since all three stick thingies turned blue two weeks ago. Chuck was actually okay with Ellie knowing their secret when the rest of the world didn't – he had a million and one questions to ask her about pregnancy-in-general, including a few very serious ones about Sarah. Most women that Chuck knew prided themselves on their appearance to some extent or another, but for an ex-CIA infiltrator/seductress whose fine looks were for so long essentially her bread and butter... Chuck wondered if such women were more susceptible to mood swings and depression from the changes inherent in pregnancy. Or would it be less? Either way, it might be something Ellie or some of her doctor friends could possibly slake his curiosity on. As exciting as Sarah's Princess Ardala costume was going to be, Chuck was sold that a big part of her desire to wear the skimpy outfit was that it'd be her last time wearing such a thing, pre motherhood. _Well what's the harm in her being the center of all male's attention one more time pre-baby?_

Whether or not Sarah was stressing about sacrificing her vanity for her impending baby bump/bulge was actually the only thing that Chuck himself was stressing about. Whilst other men might obsess over their baby's health, Chuck had always known that Sarah was already a pinnacle of fitness, and the wee one couldn't possibly be safer – or in a healthier environment- than in the temple that was Sarah's body. Otherwise, little Stephen James/Jennifer Emma was, as far as he was concerned, entering the world with a stockpile of advantages on his or her side. Two grandmothers would be all too eager to dote on the new little addition, and Chuck couldn't keep from thinking that perhaps becoming a grandfather might finally bring Jack down to earth … although that was reaching, he'd admit. Between soon-to-be uncles and honorary uncles Devon, Morgan and Casey, and aunts Ellie, Alex and Molly, plus Cousin Clara, the newest Bartowski would have a practical platoon of teachers ready to teach him or her all kinds of cool stuff, play games with, read stories with, do homework with, and when old enough, watch Shark Week with.

He thought he'd pass as a cool dad – mostly because his experience with Clara taught him that newborns and toddlers have deplorable tastes in what's cool and what's not, and were pretty easy to fool. As daddy, he'd be able to get away with a lot in those first few years.

And Sarah, he knew, would be the very definitions of "supportive", "affectionate" and of course, "protective" as a mother. _Actually, the 'protective' part might become a little problematic_ Chuck sometimes winced at the thought. Quite possibly she might have to be talked out of gory violence towards anything that could possibly cause any harm or fear to their little munchkin-to-be … which could mean that any neighbors that had frightening pets might have to be dealt with imaginatively and peacefully … and neighborhood bullies were likely to have their careers shortened dramatically and hopefully less than lethally.

Sarah finished her assessment of herself with a sigh, shrug and a turn to Chuck with a rueful grin. "You know, it's a good thing you knocked me up in late May and not earlier, otherwise I'd have to choose something else entirely for Comic-Con. Maybe one of the whales from that Star Trek movie you made me watch a few years ago."

Inviting her to bed with an outstretched arm Chuck decided against providing her with the compliment she seemed to be fishing for. "What can I say? I'm a planner."

Sarah let her mouth drop in surprise at her husband's playful smugness, but when he performed a Bartowski eyebrow dance, she couldn't even pretend to be annoyed or insulted, rather allowing a laugh through her nose. Advancing to the bed she cupped Chuck's head in her hands and brought herself in for a kiss. "I love you and your plans"

Chuck sat up in the bed, the better to allow his arms to wrap around his wonderful bride's waist. Sarah however pulled away, and pushed him back onto the bed, hard. Holding out her hand in a 'stop' gesture, she commanded "hold it a minute. Stay right there. Stay right there and count to … twenty five. Do it slowly."

Sarah issuing commands during intimate moments had been a fact of his life since Paris … and it always meant good things for him when he quickly and easily gave compliance. In positively no mood to resist, he began "Okay … one …. Two" …"

Sarah turned her back on him and trotted to the bathroom, pulling of her t-shirt while she was still in his view, and topless-but with her back towards him- she cast a saucy look over her shoulder as she disappeared behind the door on the count of "four".

At "five", the t-shirt came flying out of the bathroom, plopped against the wall, and slid down to the floor. At "nine" the shorts she had been wearing took a similar flight path, and at "twelve", her panties sailed across the small space between the bathroom door and the wall, and completed the pile. Chuck rattled off numbers thirteen through twenty four, and they passed uneventfully.

At "twenty five", Sarah made her grand entrance. Once more she wore the white bikini with the three brass rings on each side. It had been drying in the bathroom since the pool. Chuck doubted that it had completely dried over the course of the evening, but something told him that Sarah was only interested in wearing it for minutes, not hours … or perhaps seconds, not minutes.

Sarah clearly had spent whatever extra time was in that twenty-five count perfecting her game face. It was a bit of a contemptuous, empowered sneer, to match her domineering stance with her feet shoulder length apart, and her hands sternly on her hips, as if she were about to deliver a scolding. She stalked aggressively towards Chuck, and kept her breath low and dusky as she said "And now, Captain Rogers, now that I, in my benevolence, allowed you to recreate in the pool, it's time for you.." at this she planted an aggressive kiss on Chuck's lips "to show your gratitude and dedication to learning how to please your captor. Specifically by learning how to take these off."

Chuck's eyes of course glazed over in lust as Sarah got into yet another one of her costume driven role plays. Yet more evidence of himself being the luckiest man in the world. And yet he couldn't help but become distracted by the well-defined – for now- musculature of Sarah's abdomen – helplessly fascinated by the miracle growing inside there – brought about, come to think of it, by a wonderful event some weeks ago similar how tonight was shaping up to be. Rather than aggressively kiss his wife back, Chuck couldn't help simply tenderly rubbing Sarah's tummy with his fingertips.

Sarah would have none of it. "Hey!" she snapped, slapping Chuck's hand as if he were a five year old about to touch a sheet of cookies. "This is not daddy's playtime with the baby." Gently clasping Chuck's hand and bringing it to her face, she cupped Chuck's own face with her other hand. "This is daddy's playtime with the mommy."

* * *

**Philadelphia Pennsylvania**

**The Four Seasons Hotel**

**One Logan Circle  
Room 716**

_ Please Sarah, don't do the dirty talk … don't be into dirty talk… don't be into dirty talk …_ Resting her head on Devon's chest, and eyes wide in scandalized horror, Eleanor Faye Bartowski made a solemn promise to herself – she would NEVER allow her and Devon to sleep in a hotel room that shared a wall with her brother and Sarah ever again. The fact that that it was her brother was actually the least of her problems. The greatest of her problems was sleeping _Oh, please let her still be sleeping .. _ one bed over. Happily Clara seemed to be still, as Sir Carmichael guarded her. That could change however, and Ellie and Devon would have to come up with a creative story to explain away the muffled noises that were coming through the wall – mostly Sarah's – something about a high pitched female voice carrying more efficiently through the wall. Explaining the mysterious noises to Clara might be doable, but would be much more difficult if the noises were accompanied by a barrage of "no-no words" that Clara heard. Ellie wouldn't have a good explanation ready as to why Sarah'd have a potty-mouth.

"Way to go, Chuck." Devon cheered softly. Earning him a slight slap on the chest from Ellie.

"Hey" she said. "That's my brother."

Devon responded with an affectionate squeeze to his wife. "Yeah it is. And I'm happy for him. For them."

"Devon, I'd like to get through this vacation without having to explain the facts of life to our three year old daughter. I'm only praying that Sarah doesn't curse a lot."

"I'm about 75% sure she doesn't." Devon said with a wan smile. As he did, he could feel his wife's head twisting on his chest to give him and inquisitive look. Glancing down, sure enough he was confronted with Ellie's eyes requesting an explanation. He shrugged. "Back in Burbank – when we were living across the way from Chuck and Sarah. Right after Clara was born and right after Chuck proposed. I changed my jog times to early mornings on weekends. Found out the hard way when I was anywhere near their place that Chuck and Sarah liked doing something else on weekend mornings."

"How do you know it wasn't Morgan and Alex you were hearing?"

"It'd better not have been. Sarah's doesn't cuss a lot, but she's big on using Chuck's name." Devon said with a grin.

"Okay, okay, okay. That's enough gory details." Ellie commanded in a whispering hiss.

"Babe, remember back to two and half years ago. Remember how we all felt when we thought Sarah was gone forever? That she'd forgotten all about us and all about Chuck?"

In his arms, he felt Ellie sigh, signifying that she was completely aware of the point he was about to make.

"Wouldn't you have given an arm or a leg to know for sure that Chuck and Sarah would get back to a place like ... this?"

"Yesssssss" Ellie heaved.

"Well, the gods are kind. Maybe even a little overgenerous in that tonight they gave us a mezzanine seat to those two being back together."

"You're right. But next time we go vaycay we don't sleep anywhere near those two. This is just like my old sorority house, only much more gross."

"Yeah, agreed." Devon said with another squeeze.

The sounds from across the through the wall, continued for a bit longer. Muffled as they were, they were mostly indecipherable until the end, when both Woodcombs could somewhat clearly hear Sarah's crescendo, a passionate _"Oh, Chuck! …. Oh Chuck! … …. I love you! …. Oh, I love you so much!"_ Then things were pretty silent.

After a moment Devon piped up once more. "Remember, two years ago you wouldn't have felt awkward if you over heard that ... you'd be doing handstands."

Ellie sighed a little and grinned into her husband's chest. Perching up in a sphinx pose atop Devon, and letting a saucy grin part her lips, she said. "What do you say we invite your mom and dad, Chuck and Sarah to show Clara the dinosaurs on Saturday. Then you can try to make me scream like that?"

"Mmm. You're on babe." Devon said, with a soft good night kiss.


End file.
